Imperium Effect: Terra Rising
by Deathwatch Razgriz
Summary: The long awaited sequel to UNSC Pheonix Rising. The fledgling Empire has survived it's birthpains, and now looks to the stars to rebuild what was once theirs...
1. Prologue

AN: To quote an old trailer…Hell, it's about time.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **Prologue: The state of the Imperium**

 **Tera: Ten Years after the foundation of the Empire**

An imposing figure stared out from the window of the Imperial Palace over New Rome, the capital city of the Imperium. The city was a beacon of progress to the rest of the Empire, towering spires of wraith bone and gold rose dozens of kilometers from the ground like grasping fingers, almost as if they were trying to reclaim the destiny that had almost been stolen from the species that formed this great nation. Beyond those great towers, which served as memorials to all those who died ten years ago, the city was a homogenous mix of architectural styles.

The majority of the structures in the city were "neo-Imperial," a combination of Eldar styling and human materials in a breathtaking expression of the unity that had been achieved. There were also several purely Eldar and old Imperial Gothic structures doted around the cityscape, the opera house was made in the fashion of the Eldar; and all who went to that place would readily agree that the Eldar architecture allowed a quality of sound unsurpassed to be achieved.

Meanwhile the finest example of old Imperial Gothic was the Cathedral in the center of the city, right next to the Palace. It was a truly colossal structure. Ten kilometers high, five kilometers at its widest point, and fifteen kilometers long; it was a masterpiece of engineering. Beyond providing a center of worship for the Imperial Cult, it's massive size allowed multiple denominations to also house their worship there (such as Christianity and Judaism, as well as several Eldar shrines to their gods…The largest being to Ishta, the goddess of healing, and the most powerful Eldar god left in existence).

The massive figure turned and walked back into the room he had been looking out of. As this being walked through the room, he went through a door which led to a massive and opulent throne room; walking along its length the figure passed by the most striking part of the throne room, besides the thrones and who sat upon them, statues of the fallen sons of the Emperor, the Primarchs. Those who had been loyal in life stood proud and were chiseled in a heroic fashion; while their brothers who had strayed by choice or manipulation were in various different states. Those who had been manipulated, like Magnus the Red, were positioned in such a way as to show a redeemed, if ashamed, being; while those who had willingly plunged into the arms of Chaos seemed to beg for forgiveness that would never come, as their souls had ceased to exist with the destruction of the original dimension.

As he reached the end of the room, passing all the functionaries and officials gathered today without so much as a glance, and stood before two occupied thrones raised on a dais, he knelt in the light emitted by one of the gigantic windows of the Imperial Palace; revealing the form of one of the Adeptus Custodes, a Companion in fact. A booming masculine voice spoke: "Rise old friend, what news do you have?"

The golden armored figure rose, and raised his head to look upon the two figures as he spoke. Upon the taller of the two thrones sat the Immortal Emperor, clad in reforged armor that harkened back to the days of the Great Crusade, and on his right sat his wife, Ishta. The union of these two figures had cause some strife back in the infant days of the newly born Empire; puritans and fanatics from both the Imperium of Man and the Eldar opposed it, seeing it as an insult to one or the other…but eventually the doom sayers and the resistance to the union died away as the necessity of this move was made clear.

Clearing his throat, the gene forged warrior spoke: "My lord and lady, the Tau are open to negotiating a trade agreement as are the Necrons…" A wry grin was audible as he continued: "Parking a massive sphere of space fortresses around their systems might have had something to do with it of course. Though I do advise making sure Kit-, the Captain General, is calm and cannot steal any orbital craft when he is informed of this."

A small amused smile played around the lips of the Eldar Goddess as the Emperor laughed out loud, before urging the Custodian to continue. "The western front is holding strong against the latest wave of 'mega-nids,' the Imperial Science Division's new 'trooper' designs have proven quite useful in throwing bodies and firepower that the bugs cannot turn into more of them by devouring their biomass."

"The XXth Legion has just started recruiting to fill their initial numbers, and the XIXth Legion has reached minimal combat effectiveness and is awaiting deployment orders." The Emperor nodded to show he was contemplating where to send the newest legion to earn their first battlefield glories as the his companion continued: "Also the Science Division reports that the first combat trials of the new Leopard tank has been a complete success, and mass production is starting…they predict that within six months the Legions will all have Leopards as their primary combat tank, provided that they do not receive a massive boost in numbers…however they are confident if such a windfall happens they will be able to provide sufficient Leopards to the Legions in two years. Unfortunately they still have not managed to figure out what is affecting our cloning technology, the last batch of clones died in their tubes, Marshal Hallbrecht is understandably upset about that." Marshal Hallbrecht was a leading officer in the Death Korps of Krieg before the Empire was founded, as such the Emperor understood why the old veteran was upset over the latest failed batch of clones.

"Beyond that my Lord the latest colonization efforts are starting to bear fruit. The Shanxi sub sector in particular has proven to have several worlds perfect for research, combat training, manufacturing, and resorts in addition to normal colony worlds. Shanxi Prime however has added that they found another one of those 'gravity guns' that those primitive Xenos used in the ancient past."

Both of the rulers of the Empire gained concerned looks at the mention of those colossal structures. While the archive one Mars had shown that they were used as transportation by the Xenos, some other race might have sprung up since then who used them as super weapons…even if no one did those massive tuning forks were more than capable of transporting ships great distances nearly instantaneously…As had been shown when an obsolete Emperor Class battleship (loaded with scientific instruments and monitoring gear) was hurled from the Western edge of the Empire all the way to Cadia (which is three hundred light years from Tera, and at the time the farthest east their expansion had gone).

The Emperor spoke in a grave manner when he heard this: "Dispatch the Ravens to Shanxi Prime, there they will assist in protecting the system until a fortress network can be completed."

As the golden armored warrior turned to leave after receiving his liege's order, a golden jet bike sped into the throne room. It was smaller and more agile that the ones employed during the Great Crusade and afterwards by the Custodes, but due to the use of UNSC and Eldar tech it was much better armed and armored despite its comparatively small size. While the bike hovered around a hundred feet away from the throne, an Imperial Marine, clad in "Enforcer Mk V" power armor (look up Mantic Games' Enforcers), jumped off.

His shoulder pad's markings designated him as a communications officer assigned to the palace, which explained why a custodian would deign to give him a ride to the throne room. The Marine sprinted from the jet bike and bowed low before the Emperor, "My Lord, I have a report."

A sense of unease filled the throne room as the communications officer spoke, the Companion and his report had been on the schedule; but this Marine had not, and unscheduled news usually meant bad news. The Emperor nodded his head to give the officer permission to speak.

"My Lord, Shanxi Prime has gone dark. Their last communication was sighting unknown Xenos forces."

Prologue complete:

Codex: Trooper Family of Wardroids

Despite the former Mechanicus members resistance to having AI, even basic ones, developed and deployed, the strategic reality facing the Imperium forced them to work with the other members of the Imperial Science Division (I.S.D.) to create such a thing.

The Trooper family is a group of three separate types of wardroids.

Firstly there is the "Grunt" or "Groundpounder" type. These machines are a "dumb" A.I. built into a human sized, and shaped, chassis. Their intended role is as mass produced infantry, deployed under the command of organic or closely monitored "smart" A.I. As such they can carry all the same weapons a regular Marine can…Although to appease the former Mechanicus members and speed up production the Grunt pattern is less well protected than a regular Marine.

Then there is the "Assault" type, a much heavier armed and armored, as well as taller, model. These war droids are propelled by "smart A.I.", to ensure that these models are able to respond faster and more flexibly than the basic model; and are to grunts what Legionaries are to Marines…Albeit still weaker than true Legionaries…However to further placate the mutterings about "abominable intelligences" the old "Three Laws of Robotics" by Asminov were implanted in each A.I in these Assault models.

Lastly there is the so called "Mobile Doll," A.I. controlled Mobile Suits. They are designed to be deployed en-masse and led by an organic pilot in another MS…Or controlled from the mother ship by a designated officer. If deployed on the ground command is instead usually handled by the front's command center or as in space an organic in a MS.

Codex: Leopard Tank

The Leopard tank is an attempt by the I.S.D. to create a powerful main battle tank to replace all the old models previously in service.

It is well defended with a potent energy shield able to withstand sustained fire from a squadron of last generation tanks and mobile suits for a minute before collapsing, and more than able to withstand the bioplasma of over a dozen "King Carnifexes." This is supplemented by armor of 150 mm thickness all around, this armor is made of a new composite which makes the armor equivalent to 10 times that thickness, and even higher on the slopped surfaces; as well as 2 x 12 smoke dischargers, a pair of point defense lasers, and dozens of small improvements to safety over the last generation of MBTs.

It is armed with a single 105 mm Mars Pattern Jaeger Cannon; a potent design able to switch between hyper velocity railgun, high intensity laser, and high powered plasma cannon with minimal effort. A coaxial HMG, able to switch between firing caseless bolter rounds with a plasma coating and being a pure energy weapon; and a hull mounted gatling laser round out the weaponry on this machine.

It is powered by a forth generation cold plasma reactor producing more than enough energy to power three tanks, this power output was mandated so that if necessary one rank could get two more tanks back up and running by jury rigging a link between them…Albeit they would still need replacement part to be self-sufficient again, but in a battle that could swing the odds in the tank group's favor.

To round out this impressive machine it has a top speed of 250 KMPh, although in practice if the engine is red zoned this speed can be easily surpassed…some crews have even reported hitting speeds of 500 KMPh before the reactor started to dangerously over heat.

Codex: The Cloning Issue

After setting up on Terra and other planets, the cloning masters of the fledging Empire were shocked to discover that none of their old cloning methods worked anymore for producing additional humans and Eldar; although animal and seed production was still possible. Many theories were proposed as to why this was. The primary theories though are as follows.

The first theory is that: Slaanesh fucked it up. This theory can be summed up as the former Daemon Goddess somehow screwed the tech up when she vanished. This theory has a small but vocal following, especially among the Eldar. Though if true then only the former Princess of Excess could restore the Empire's cloning to what it once was.

The second, and most popular, is essentially that this new reality's version of the warp somehow interfered with the process, and until it can be filtered out the vast clone armies of the past will always be a memory.

The last theory is also the one most people look at as though the proposer is crazy. That all the deaths created a "will of humanity" and that this being does not wish for the Empire to create any more clones until the genetic pool of the Imperium has expanded enough for the citizens not to get lazy in producing more offspring.


	2. The Relay 314 Incident

AN: This was done faster than I expected…I think my excitement and your support managed to get me going again on this. So keep the reviews coming! Speaking of reviews, let's take a look at what you've been asking. iZuikaku, because Arpeggio bores me, and I do not own a copy of Nier…If I decide to slug through Arpeggio or get Nier I might add content from that; but it's unlikely, sorry. edboy4926, the Legionaries already can stomp a Primaris one on one, remember they are enhanced to the point that they make Spartans and regular Space Marines look like a failed science experiment. Cawl might show up at some point, but I'm not too sure what I'd do with him if I do bring him in yet. Raizen Lord of Twilight, at the moment it's just a cameo/theory…I may expand on it, I may not. Chad0615, yep that he is. Now enjoy the chapter people.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **The Relay 314 Incident:**

 **Unclaimed System holding relay 314: The spark for change**

The small system in which relay 314 lay was unremarkable in every sense of the word, it held five worlds, of which only one was even remotely inhabitable without going to extreme measures to colonize it; albeit it was the smallest of all the planets. The small asteroid belt near the third planet had already been strip mined of all valuable resources centuries ago.

There were no archeological finds of significance in the system. And as it housed an inactivate relay the Turian Navy kept a close eye on the system, so pirates and other criminals avoided setting up shop in the system.

The relay at the opposite end of the system from 314 suddenly flashed a blinding blue, signifying a ship was exiting the relay. When the light died down a badly damaged Quarian research vessel, the Alarei, limped into the system. The ship's hull had several large gaping holes in it, which the kinetic shields were just barely preventing from leaking atmosphere.

 **Bridge of the Alarei:**

Captain Rael'Zorah stared blankly out the main viewing window of the bridge, darkly musing on the events of the past six hours. The Alarei had been sent, along with two escorting frigates, had been dispatched to observe a stellar phenomenon affecting a star out in the Skyllian traverse; Rael had protested the orders, he knew that it was uncomfortably close to Batarian controlled space, and that the four eyed slavers always were on the lookout for Quarians to add to the slave trade.

Unfortunately all his protests had managed to get was a pair of frigates assigned as escorts. Escorts who willingly stayed behind to slow the Batarian pirate group they encountered, though there was little hope of them escaping, let alone surviving, as the pirates were led by a refurbished Turian Talon class heavy dreadnought. Before the research ship had managed to jump system it had taken a few hits from the smaller pirate vessels, little more than corvettes with oversized guns, which had punched through the shielding and put those gaping holes in its hull.

Miraculously, the reactor and engines had not been hit by the pirates, and they had managed to escape. Though that was small comfort, the frigates and their crews were either destroyed, or more likely, captured by the Batarian pirates. Despite not "officially" being slavers, it was an open secret that the pirates would sell any captives they managed to secure on the various slave markets; including the infamous Camalaian ones...A slave sent to the markets on Camala are considered effectively dead by most races.

Shaking his head to stop himself from dwelling on the fate of the escort ships' crews, he glanced at the report in on his omni-tool. The Alarei was a cruiser sized vessel, but carried a larger crew due to the research the ship had to do, of the one thousand crew members (when in the flotilla the number was much less, as crew members could head to a life ship to rest in between shifts), one hundred had died when the Batarian shots penetrated the armor of the vessel. If the vessel ever returned to the flotilla it would spend weeks being repaired, and he would resign because of his failure.

Before he could brood on the losses his crew suffered, crew members he had known for years, a cry of alarm from the scanner operator caught his attention. "SIR! The relay we just came through is going hot again, at least a dozen vessels are coming through…It's most likely the Batarians!"

Captain Zorah swore, "Keelah, that's all we need right now…We can't go back to the relay and make another jump, they'll catch us before we can jump. We can't hide out on any of these planets, the Batarians will find us…We need to go through Relay 314."

It was a credit to his crew that no one protested his choice, they were all professionals and they knew what would happen if the Batarians caught them. As such the activation codes for the relay, something that was only ever used when a significant military presence was present, were readied and transmitted in less than a minute. As the dormant relay powered up, the pursuing Batarians arrived. There were two dozen ships in the group, including a brand new Vengeance class pocket Dreadnought.

But the Batarians were too late; they arrived just in time to see their crippled prey jump through the activated relay. Hesitating for just a few seconds, the Batarians swiftly followed their quarry into the relay.

 **Shanxi System: The Minotaur CDF Destroyer**

Captain Onrys Sheppard, formerly of Ulthwe's fleet, looked over the report his aid, a human by the name of Gabriel Rodriguez, had handed him a few minutes ago while drinking some green tea. While not what he was used to in Eldar communities, it would do in a pinch. The Minotaur was a last generation Lancer Class, not the most powerful Imperial vessel, but far superior to the old vessels before the founding of the Imperium, it was even faster and more maneuverable than the old Eldar ships.

As well as the Minotaur, Onrys had been given command over two frigates as escorts. It was a small group compared to what the Eldar had commanded back when he was a commander in his Craftworld's Navy; but it was more powerful. The report was nothing out of the ordinary, the ships under his command and their crew was ready for anything.

After reading through the report, he reached down and pulled out a locket, opening it he smiled briefly as he looked at the picture inside. It was of a beautiful red headed human woman holding a blonde baby boy who had Eldar ears. If someone had told him he would fall in love with a human five years ago, he would have laughed in their faces and called them insane; but Hannah Sheppard was no ordinary Human, there was something special about here that made him curious when they first met…curiosity led to attraction, attraction led to love, and love led to marriage and a child two years ago.

He was dragged out of his reminiscing when warning claxons rang out. Stuffing the locket back down his uniform, he spoke in a commanding voice: "Status report?"

A small green holographic image appeared on one of the arms of his chair, it was of an ancient human goddess in battle armor; her name was Athena, the smart AI assigned to his battlegroup: "The relay just went live; the sensors are detecting twenty five ships coming through. None of the ships are larger than a destroyer, though strangely one of them seems to be in front by a minute."

The Eldar nodded: "It could be a vanguard or something else completely…Alert all hands and issue call to battle stations. If these new comers prove hostile I want us ready."

Athena's avatar winked out as she carried out the captain's orders. As the crew went about their jobs of getting the ship ready for combat, Onrys wished for half a second he had more Eldar and they could use their psychic abilities to control the ship directly; before quashing the thought immediately, while they were not the crew he had served with for centuries in Ulthwe, the crew was disciplined, well trained, and very effective…in time they would be as good as his old crew.

Then the relay flashed blue and a badly damaged corvette exited the relay. It was strangely shaped, it looked a little like an old Human thermometer, except the circular "head" was disproportionately large compared to the "stem" behind it…the jagged holes were easy to notice…The strange ship made a beeline for them, broadcasting signals on all channels. Before he could order the battle group's AI to translate the signals, the relay flashed again, and a hodge podge of various different designs and sizes appeared.

The new comers seemed to be coming to grips with what they were seeing for a minute; but then they changed to an attack formation and started bearing down on the first arrival, firing what appeared to be weak spinal guns. This clarified the situation immediately for the defenders of Shanxi Prime, and each of the three ships picked a target…And fired.

 **Bridge of the Alarei: three minutes ago**

Rael'Zorah knew the Batarians were hot on his heels, but there was little he could do about that besides try and out run them. It was very unlikely that he would succeed in that. As such while the ship was in transit, he asked his crew for options they were willing to follow if they couldn't run any further.

The answer was unanimous. If there were aliens on the other side they would try to show they were not hostile, and to get help with repairs and temporary protection…If there weren't, then they would wait until the Batarians got in close, and then detonate the oversized mass effect reactor, taking as many of their pursuers down as possible.

When the ship emerged from the relay network, they were upraised to see THREE heavy dreadnought size ships guarding a garden world.

His crew though was good, and after getting over their momentary shock, they started transmitting on all channels that they were friendly and needed aid; all the while speeding towards the planet. Thankfully either the defenders understood the messages they were transmitting, or they were hesitating because they were unsure of the Alarei's intentions.

The ship had made it a third of the way to the planet, while redlining their engine and power plant, when the Batarians arrived. Rael was hopeful that the sight of three heavy dreadnoughts would be enough to make the Batarians back off; unfortunately it seemed they were more aggressive and less intelligent than the Quarian thought, as within a few seconds they had entered an attack formation and came bearing down on the wounded vessel…firing their cannons once they were within range.

Then to the shock of the quarians the defenders of the planet opened fire on the Batarians. The first three shots vaporized their targets, an old surplus Turian cruiser and a pair of Batarian produced destroyers…but the shots also cut through four corvettes on the way to their targets.

Two seconds later the next volley tore into the pursuing Batarians; destroying the last of the corvettes (three), three destroyers (one of which was in a direct line behind the other), and the last cruiser. By this point the remaining pirates were starting to flee; but another round tore into the retreating pirates, destroying the Vengeance class, three destroyers out of the four remaining, and the light carrier (which had been modified to transport slaves).

The last destroyer jumped before it could be destroyed… The incident had lasted less than thirty seconds after the defenders opened fire, and had been a massacre. Fear and apprehension gripped Captain Rael at this fact, it would have been all too easy for these unknown to destroy them, he briefly considered fleeing back to the relay; but then a message came from the largest ship around the planet. It wasn't a verbal communication, but a pictorial one. It relayed instructions for them to follow one of the smaller ships to a shipyard where there ship would be repaired and diplomats could meet them.

Hesitating for only a second, they complied. After all, it was likely if they didn't they would be annihilated, and none of them were willing to go through that now that they had hope of living through the day.

 **Next time: 314: The long arm of the law**

Codex: Talon Class Heavy Dreadnought

The Talon is an older Heavy Dreadnought class, in fact it was the first "Heavy Dreadnought" class to ever be built. It was designed under the impression that bigger capital ships would be needed in the future. At the time of its construction, a century after the Krogan Rebellions and a year after the Turians were granted their seat on the council, it was the most powerful ship class to ever be built.

Its main cannon produced twice the kinetic power of its nearest competitor, and it had several broadside guns that produced as much as the main gun of a frigate; beyond that it had a pair of early GUARDIAN laser point defense batteries.

The armor of this class was higher than most other dreadnoughts of the time; and the shielding was much higher than its nearest rival.

However the sheer amount of weapons and the shielding was a massive drain on the power output, and the internals needed for all of the weapons and shielding also meant that the ship was much slower than virtually any vessel.

When it was replaced by the Guardian Heavy Dreadnought nine hundred ninety four years later, many of them were sold off to planetary defense forces. In recent years the Talon class has become a popular ship amongst the more wealthy pirates, some of whom merely use it as a status symbol…but most have modernized the ship in every way possible; making it a threat to even cruiser squadrons, though it is no match for a modern dreadnought…let alone a heavy dreadnought.

Codex: Vengeance Class Fast Dreadnought

The Vengeance Class is a uniquely batarian idea among the Citadel and Terminus races. It is a 1.3 km long vessel, fitting in the middle of the dreadnought range. Its main gun is extremely dangerous, able to inflict heavy damage to even modern heavy dreadnoughts. Its engines are more powerful than almost any engine fitted to a warship, allowing it to outrun anything that could be a threat to it. However its defenses are rather lacking, even destroyer weight ships can penetrate its armor with their main gun.

Officially Batarian State Arms developed this ship class to give the Batarian fleet an edge against the larger navies of the races that enjoyed the trust of the council. Unofficially, everyone knows that more often than not these warships will wind up in the hands of more "valuable" pirate bands.

Codex: Lancer Class Destroyer

At a length of two km, the Lancer class was the last of the old "UNSC" style ships to enter production before the new "Imperials" entered production. It is well armed, recent technological advances allow the main cannon to put out as much fire power as an old battlecruiser; it also has secondary energy (able to switch between laser and plasma) turret batteries, and point defense laser batteries. The armor plating is made of gundanium at 500 mm thick, making it a tough tin can; however, while its shielding is strong, it's not designed with dark matter weapons in mind, so something laced with dark matter can seriously interfere with its defenses. It's a relatively fast ship, able to hit a tenth of the speed of light full out in combat.

Codex: Speed of the Imperial Fleet

There has been a noticeable decrease in speed of the Imperial warship over the decade from the decommissioning of most of the UNSC vessels. The reason for this is that hitting that speed in combat seems to do strange things to the ships of the Empire. One example is when a Ohio Class rigged up to test this effect turned inside out while going full speed. As such until a work around is discovered Imperial ship designers have limited the combat speed of warships in development.

Review please and thank you


	3. Relay 314 The Long Arm of the Law

AN: Well, I'm back…I would say life kept me busy, but in this case, I was just lazy. Anyways let's look at your reviews. SPARTAN-626, the rest of the Legions are currently tied up on the western edge of the galaxy, battling extra-galactic invaders (such as the mega-nids). I may do more TTS cameos/easter eggs, but we will see. Artyom-Dreizehn, because it doesn't make sense NOT to boost the size of ME fleets. I mean come on, humanity made more warships during the period leading up to WWI through WWII then the citadel has ever made (if my sources are right)…naval forces THAT small when they would realistically own hundreds (maybe even over a thousand) of worlds makes no sense. Their speed is better in some regards, but worse in others (I'll do a codex entry on this at some point). All I have left to say is "cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war."

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **314: The long arm of the law**

 **Relay 314: Citadel controlled territory: 10 minutes after the last chapter**

The once nearly lifeless system was now a hive of activity. The Turian 7th Battle Fleet, three hundred ships strong, was gathering at all speed. One of their own had made a startling find, one that demanded the full might of the 7th.

Shuttle craft had been traveling from the various wing command ships to the three kilometer long fleet command ship for the last nine minutes…and now, the command staff of the fleet had gathered for a briefing on this new potential threat.

 **Briefing Room of the Heavy Command Dreadnought: Eyes of Pavalen**

The briefing room of the warship was massive, and easily held the every officer over the rank of lieutenant. The atmosphere was quiet and somber, a new threat to the Citadel systems was not a surprise, after all anything from a pirate coalition (such as the group that the 7th had shattered over a hundred years ago, the remnants of which now served as Omega's defense fleet) to a bomb threat could happen on a given day.

But no threat in the past century had required even a tenth of the force the 7th could bring to bear, often enough the mere appearance of a detachment from the 7th would cause the offending force to surrender, this set the crews a little on edge; but they were mostly unconcerned...after all, in its thousand years of service, the 7th had NEVER lost a battle, let alone a war.

The flanged voice of Admiral Gaius, nephew of the next Turian Councilor (Spartus), broke the silence: "Approximately ten minutes ago, a known Batarian slaver vessel, "The Ravager," re-entered this system…Through Relay 314. As I'm sure you're all aware, Relay 314 was inactive and Citadel law forbids its activation."

"After a brief clash with Task Force One, the destroyer was captured and the crew interrogated. Now, if the claims of the slavers are to be believed, and we all know they would do anything to save their own skins…" A brief bout of chuckles wracked the room, Batarians were rather infamous for their dishonesty amongst Turians (who formed the bulk of the Citadel's military and law enforcement).

"Then the slavers caught a Quarian vessel trying to open this very relay. Naturally we can assume that they had been chasing the vessel for a while, and the Quarians had opened the relay out of desperation; while this does not fully excuse their opening, we can be lenient with them. However the main issue is these warships."

A high quality image of the three Imperial warship appeared, before flashing through several more screens of them firing upon the Batarians. Murmurs broke out at the sight of these images, but the admiral gave a quick glance around the room to silence the talking.

"Sensor logs from the Ravager claim these ships range from one and a half to two kilometers long; and as you can see from the combat imagery, bearing weaponry at least on par with our own damage potential wise…more likely however their weaponry far surpasses our own."

"As such diplomacy is probably the best option, but if we hand this off to the Asari it's more than likely they would hand over unnecessary concessions to this new species…However, a show of force such as ours should be enough to get a more beneficial treaty for the council; because of this we will be going through the relay at full combat readiness. If these new aliens are not amenable to diplomacy, we will seize the planet and hold it hostage to force them to the table...any questions?"

General Arterius stood and spoke: "Admiral, I know we are going to try and do this diplomatically, but is there any intel you can share about potential opposition my boys might face on the ground if it comes down to an invasion?"

The admiral shook his head: "Unfortunately no. But a safe assumption would be that these unknowns have technology at least on par with the kind they showed in their brief engagement in space with the pirates, so expect heavy firepower and unknown level of defensive ability."

The general nodded in acceptance as he sat, already running through theoretical scenarios for what might happen if a landing needed to happen. A junior patrol captain then stood: "Sir, have we considered the possibility that the Quarians are actually the ones there? They have shown a dangerous disregard for common sense before, the Geth being a primary example of this."

The older Turian once again shook his head: "Considered, and rejected. If this was a Quarian project the STG or some other intelligence group would have discovered it by now, or we would have seen some defending the Migrant Fleet. I know your patrol group has been dealing with Quarian subterfuge and skirting the law before, but keep yourself in check captain, we do not need a diplomatic incident here."

The captain bowed his head in acceptance before sitting, and then a commodore stood: "If there are so few warships defending this planet, why even bother with diplomacy? We outnumber them by such wide a margin it would feel like an insult to the seventh fleet's legacy if we did not best them in battle."

Gaius gave the commodore a harsh stare as he spoke: "Because, commodore we have no intel about this race. This could be a primary world; it could be a newly founded colony. These warships could be the largest they have, or they could be their equivalent to our destroyers, as unlikely as that may be. To top it off what are their ground forces like, better equipped than our own, are they equipped to the same level? Now are there any more questions?" When none came he nodded his head: "To your ships then, we enter the relay in five minutes."

 **Shanxi system: Bridge of the Minotaur**

Captain Onrys looked through the report his small group's automated drones had transmitted about the destroyed ships' remains. A scowl formed on the Eldar's lips as his suspicions were confirmed, those vessels were pirates at the very least, and slavers at worst. The ships had been modified for speed and firepower, armor was shaved down and what should have been shield generators were leaking much weaker energy than it should for vessels of their size.

The scan reports of the few intact holds showed that there were holding areas in there with restraints, proving that they at least took captives, probably to sell later on some slave market in whatever territory they controlled. As such he felt no remorse when he ordered the automated drones to massacre the crews that may have survived aboard the wreckage of the ships.

As the automated kill bots carried out the orders he issued, he turned to the other issue he faced. He had dispatched one of his escorting frigates to take the "friendly" xenos to one of the sector's shipyards to get repairs and meet with diplomatic representatives. A wry chuckle passed through the Eldar's lips, "xenos" he was starting to sound like one of the Imperials. Still the fact remained that his defensive group had been reduced in strength by a third, if they faced any serious second attack they would be in a LOT of trouble.

As if summoned by his musing, warning klaxons blared out a warning; and Athena appeared, looking grim: "Captain, the relay is hot; there is a new batch of contacts coming through…Three hundred ten strong."

A silence descended as this bit of news sunk in. Even if the ships were as weak as the earlier ones, their sheer numbers would allow them to get in close, and overwhelm them. However, unlike what most would expect, instead of descending into a panic a cold certainty settled over the crew; they would do their duty, even in the face of such overwhelming odds.

Without orders or prompting, the coms officer sent off a warning to Shanxi Prime, informing them that it was time to initiate contingency plan "Castle." As soon as that message was sent, he turned his attention to sending a message to the rest of the Imperium…But before he could get farther then saying that an unknown Xenos force was coming, the relay disgorged all three hundred Turian ships; causing a massive pulse of energy to leave the relay and temporarily disable most of the non-essential systems on board the two Imperial ships…including the communication array.

 **Bridge of the Eyes of Palaven:**

Admiral Gaius stared at the tactical display as his fleet exited the relay, there were only two of the expected three warships guarding the world. Amongst the debris of the Batarian pirate there was no trace of any ships that matched the ones in the captured readings and images of the slaughter, nor was there any trace of the Quarian vessel. As such it was very likely that these unknowns had detached one of their ships to escort the Quarians to a ship yard to get repaired, and probably initiate some form of diplomacy.

Speaking of which, he spoke to the com office of his flagship: "Send the first contact bundle. Let's see if we can get a response from them." The younger officer, from the colony of Thracia judging by her markings, nodded as she sent the transmission.

A tense silence washed over the crew as they waited…For half an hour no response came, and then it came to Gaius: "Spirits…These aliens might not have sufficiently hardened their technology against relay emissions. Their non-essential systems are probably in the process of being repaired right now. No wonder there's been no reply so far! As soon as their vessels have repaired their equipment send another transmission."

As soon as he finished speaking the sensor officer, a young male from Palaven, called out: "Sir! Our sensors are detecting massive surge from the unknown's ships!"

A slight chuckle escaped the admiral's mandibles: "Calm down, that's probably their systems rebooting. Send the message agai…"

He was cutoff when the same officer spoke up in a slightly panicked voice: "Sir, Commodore Aurelius' battlegroup just opened fire on the unknowns!"

A chill ran down the flag officer's spine, his gaze snapped back down to the tactical display to see that Aurelius' battlegroup had indeed fired…What's more they were advancing in combat formation to get in range with their torpedoes and other shorter range weaponry. At that moment it felt like the weight of the galaxy was pressing down on his shoulders.

At this point in time he had two options. The first choice was to destroy the insubordinate commodore's group, costing thousands of Turian lives…It might work out well, the unknowns might take this at face value and know that they were punishing what were essentially traitors at this point…or it might end up badly, with the unknowns getting reinforcements and slaughtering his depleted fleet; which would leave no one able to inform the Hierarchy of this new war.

On the other hand he could back his treacherous commodore's action, and after destroying the defending ships hold the world hostage to get a cease fire and diplomacy started. Of course this could result in a lot of Turian deaths if it went wrong as well.

Gaius growled: "Spirits damn the man. All ships, support the commodore. After this battle is done deploy ground troops to secure the planet and its population as a bargaining chip; and get some marines to take Aurelius into custody, I want it clapped in shackles by the time this is over."

 **General POV: Shanxi**

With the order given the rest of the fleet jumped into action, advancing in combat formations and firing. Most of their rounds found their marks, impacting on the armor plating of the Imperial warships, but did little beyond surface damage.

The Imperials did not sit idle as they were shot at either, the frigate opened fire with its spinal MAC, obliterating or at least damaging one ship (clipping off wings, removing decks from the top or bottom of the Turian vessels, ect) with every shot; and the Minotaur rotated so its broadsides faced the incoming hostiles.

The first volley of shots from the Minotaur's energy turrets vaporized a squadron of Turian destroyers. With this display of power the 7th fleet fanned out, making it harder to destroy multiple ships with a single shot. This, along with the mostly cosmetic damage being done, forced the attacking fleet to concentrate their firepower on one spot on the Minotaur. This coordinated barrage finally broke through the superior armor of the Minotaur, taking out a full battery of energy turret.

This change in tactics was expected by the Imperials, who countered as best they could, but there were just too rich of a target environment; especially as Turians had deployed their fighter and bomber craft, which swarmed around the two Imperial ships, interfering with the lines of fire of the guns and inflicting minor damage and knocking out several guns.

The dozen Imperial fighters who launched to meet the threat of the Turian attack craft were overwhelmed and wiped out, but not before scoring disproportionately high kill ratios of roughly forty to one. But that was nothing compared to the two spaceborne mobile suits deployed by the defenders, both were old Geara Zulu pattern suits, between the two of them they shot down two hundred single attack craft, and sunk six frigates and four destroyers before finally being killed.

But without the defending craft, the two Imperial vessels were all too vulnerable. Soon enough, the escort frigate, Priam, exploded in a shower of metal fragments and plasma energy as it's powercore was detonated by one of the Turian Guardian Heavy Dreadnought's shells. The explosion vaporized six frigates that were too close along with thirty of the remaining fighters. The Minotaur, when it finally was destroyed in a fireball twice the size of the Priam, destroyed three cruisers, including the flagship of commodore Aurelius.

This brief battle, lasting ten minutes, cost the Turian navy dearly, a full third of the seventh's ships and three quarters of their attack craft destroyed, with no survivors from those ships; and another third crippled by enemy fire. In total the Turians lost five hundred thousand people.

The Imperium by contrast got off rather light numerically; a little over one thousand dead, two obsolete warships, two obsolete mobile suits, and a squadron of obsolete fighters.

However, now the Turians held orbital control over the colony…The Turian Legions would now do their part in what later historians would call: "The greatest military blunder of the citadel era."

 **Next time: 314: The Wolf of Shanxi Prime**

Codex: Turian 7th Battle Fleet, is a rather famous (or infamous depending on who you ask) formation. The 7th Battle Fleet is one of the most successful formations in the Turian Navy, in its one thousand years of existence the fleet has been deployed to numerous pirate suppression sweeps throughout the "terminus" systems. As well as pirate suppression, the 7th is infamous for their role in crushing several small scale uprisings and subjugating several "minor" races that had violent first encounters with the Citadel.

The crewmen of the 7th are, for the most part, highly disciplined professionals; and their marines are more than a match for most forces they might encounter, due to their rigorous training.

The core of the 7th are five "Guardian" Heavy Dreadnoughts and the Heavy Command Dreadnought "Eyes of Palaven," a special variant of the Guardian designed to coordinate the actions of an entire fleet over multiple fronts. Around that core are ten carriers (each carrying one hundred fifty fighters and fifty bombers), twenty four dreadnoughts, seventy two cruisers, one hundred forty destroyers, twenty four supply ships, and forty four assault troop transports.

Codex: Turian Naval Doctrine

The Turian Navy is an old and well respected institution amongst the Citadel powers. Where the Asari focus on decapatory strikes and economy of force, and the Salarians focus on hit and run as well as stealth warfare; the Turians are the anvil of the Citadel military, smashing apart any foe they may face with overwhelming numbers and fire superiority.

Their fleet formations reflect this well. Each fleet is able to carry out any mission it may run across; whether it be interdicting pirates, fighting fleet sized engagements, or invading planets. A Turian Sector Fleet (the largest formation in the navy), is sub divided into up to a dozen battle fleets depending on their area of operation.

Battle fleets in turn can be broken down into individual fleets, self-contained units intended to deal with moderate threats. See the "Battle at Hells Pass" for an example of the actions a fleet might be called in for.

Fleets can be further subdivided into patrol fleets, which are intended for scouting and dealing with minor threats; like up and coming pirate gangs or meteors that need to be destroyed before they impact planets.

Lastly patrol fleets, in large enough sectors, can be further divided into "battlegroups" a catch all term for any formation with less than twenty warships. Battlegroups are the backbone of the Turian Navy, used in all scenarios where speed and aggression is preferable to bringing a more powerful, but more ponderous, formation to bear. As such battlegroup commanders are usually the most aggressive and independent of all commanding officers in the Navy.

Codex: Castle Contingency

The Castle Contingency plan was developed to counter the threat of invasions by numerically superior foes. All settlements are evacuated back to cities that are built in easily defensible locations, so prevent the invaders from taking hostages or slaves. During the evacuation, CDF units are to set up defenses in choke points and block as many routes to the city(ies) as possible (whether by deploying in that area, or making it impassible is up to the commander). From these positions the CDF is expected to hold until relieved by either CDF first repose units or other Imperial forces.

Review please and thank you


	4. 314 The Wolf of Shanxi

AN: Here we go folks, a new chapter. Before we get started, as per usual, we'll look at the comments that need addressing. Tjuparulla, logically speaking that was the only way to do it really. SPARTAN-626, you'd be wrong…As for the Turians everyone seems to forget that, despite how much we destest them, they have been the primary military force of the Citadel for over a thousand years, certain doctrines and ways of thinking get hammered in when you fill a role for so long (unless, you know, your GOD tells you that's not how we're doing things anymore). Artyom-Dreizehn, 1: I gave them their brains partially back, while Bioware DESTROYED their ability to think and progress (They're like the mainline mechanicum in the sense of no technological progress…but they have discovered better metals and other ingredients to improve over the old tech they built on). 2: The treaty still exists, just scaled up with the increased fleet sizes. 3: By modern standards you are correct, but compared to say the Imperium (the version in this fic) they are rather weak. One final thing before we begin, I would like to thank Uncle WAAAAAGH for his help with this chapter; without him I do not think I would have had this ready as quickly, or indeed that it would have been this long. Let's begin.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **314: The Wolf of Shanxi Prime**

 **Shanxi Primus: eighty miles to the south of the capital city of Beijo...thirty minutes after Turian Landings**

Captain Williams, a forty year old Caucasian male with close cut brown hair and blue eyes, scowled as he examined his tac pad. The situation was bad. The invaders had landed forty, seven hundred meter long ships in a circle around the capital; they were deploying ground troops just outside of the range the AA would have ripped their ships to shreds.

The CDF garrison for the planet had already destroyed every way into the city barring the main road, and established a in depth defensive position; one that relied heavily on automated defenses and mines to keep the small garrison from suffering heavy casualties...It would not hold for more than a day, but by then reinforcements should have arrived in sufficient numbers to drive the invaders back.

There was only one issue in the Captain's opinion. He, along with three other troopers were cutoff far from the defensive lines. But there was an upside to the situation, he reflected as he lit a cigar, and he was sitting on it.

As he called the three troopers over, he got out of one of the most destructive mobile weapons on the planet…A refurbished Tiger tank. Compared to the old Second Zeon War vehicle; this tiger had much better protection (forty mm more armor, new metallurgical composition, revamped shielding and engine), and a much more impressive offensive punch (it's old 88 mm railgun replaced with a higher velocity railgun able to switch to laser or plasma fire).

Charles spoke with a calm measured voice: "Alright boys and girl, here's the situation. As I'm sure you're all aware, unknown xenos forces whipped out the small naval force in orbit but took a hell of a bludgeoning. However, their ground forces have landed in a circle fifty miles away from the capital."

Internally the UNSC 7th Armored Division veteran smiled, the three other CDF troopers with him reacted exactly as he hopped…Blank stares and waiting for him to finish. Sucking in a pull on his cigar, and then letting it out, blowing a smoke ring out, he continued: "I for one do not plan on letting that stop us. Governor Alexander has the defenses well in hand, so the plan is to use Lupa here," here he slapped the side of the tank, "to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible to the invaders."

"Any questions? No? Then mount up, every moment we delay is another these invaders have to advance relatively unmolested."

 **Ten minutes later: Turian Fourth Legion, First Armored Maniple: 30 miles south of Beijo**

Colonel Verius, an older Turian male from Galatana, surveyed the area from the commander's copula in his command tank. The landing operation had gone perfectly; there was no opposition to the troops as they had spread out. However that was actually the start of the problems the Turian troopers faced. The minor settlements they had found had all been evacuated and turned into death traps as automated turrets tore through anything that even so much as passed close by the villages. This led to high casualties until artillery and orbital assists were brought to bear in leveling the towns.

Once the minor settlements were blasted into oblivion, the advance continued; but they ran into three major problems. The first being that the primary city on the planet was surrounded by concealed aa and other automated defenses, as the Fifth Airborne Legion's recon elements discovered to their cost, losing half their strength before they even knew what was going on.

A more troublesome issue was the fact that besides the main entrance to the city, the other routes had been rendered impassible. Whether through destroying the passes by burying them in rocks and rubble; or destroying bridges over chasms too wide for their engineering corps to create a crossing point in a timely manner, the defenders had forced the Turians to advance down one route. While this was inconvenient due to the encircling deployment they had taken the main problem was the defenders themselves.

Reports from the vanguard were bleak. The defenders had set up an in depth defensive position, one which had repelled them with ease. The eighth legion was going to be the next to hit the defenders, they would hopefully break the defenders rapidly, if not then there were another five hundred thousand soldiers on the planet who could try.

Verius was roused from his thoughts when one of his tanks exploded…BEHIND him. Turning towards the sound of the explosion, dozens of other tanks exploded in rapid succession around him before he could even catch a glimpse of an attacker. Activating his helmet's inbuilt binoculars he caught sight of a boxy tank on a hill over a mile away. The opposing vehicle was picking them off with ease, every single shot from the tank claimed a kill, and even the new heavy "Archaeon" tanks were no match for the firepower displayed by this frightening new adversary.

Mustering his resolve, the Colonel rallied his men to charge the unknown's armored vehicle. The regiment, now down to half strength, charged valiantly, firing their main guns. Cheers broke out over the radio when they saw their shells impact against their target's armor, only to turn to horrified gasps as they saw that the assault didn't even dent the armor of the metal monster that still fought on.

But now instead of firing railgun shells, a beam of pure energy sprang from the tank's barrel, sweeping back and forth…destroying dozens of tanks and IFVs with each pass. All too soon, only the command tank was left, having reached within fifty feet of the opposing tank; even at such a close range, the shells from the Turian tank bounced off the frontal armor of the steel behemoth. With contemptuous ease, the undamaged tank opened fire with a burst of laser fire, destroying the Turian tank in a ball of fire.

The turret swept from side to side, scanning the battlefield for more targets. When none presented themselves, the tank rumbled on, hunting for more prey.

 **CDF Defensive Position: Five Miles outside of Beijo: Twenty Minutes Later**

Governor Lukas Alexander was a seasoned veteran of many wars, both for the Imperium of Man and its successor state the Imperium. He had fought with his men in countless battles, leading from if not the front, then as close to it as possible. He was a man who enjoyed a good challenge; the higher the stakes, the better he performed, and the higher the shot of euphoria when his adrenalin had worn off and victory was his.

But this was the most dire scenario he had ever faced. To defend a fully operational fortress that had been built over the span of weeks if not months is a challenge in of itself; but he only had hastily assembled defenses here. He gave that's to the Emperor that he had a Death Korps engineer serving under him, otherwise the defenses his men had assembled would not nearly be as effective as they were now.

On top of the less than ideal defensive position, he still recalled the scowling face of Johan as the veteran reported that the defenses were as ready as they could be, the CDF detachment assigned to the plant numbered only five hundred men and women. Defending the defenses that had been erected would be a struggle…especially with considering how badly they were outnumbered. Reports indicated that these unknown Xenos had landed roughly five hundred THOUSAND soldiers. At that great a discrepancy in numbers, losing even a single soldier became all that more devastating; every soldier that fell meant that the others would have to fight even harder against ever more overwhelming numbers.

With the current situation, Alexander was certain of only one thing. He and his soldiers would win gloriously, or all die this day…There would be no retreat, and there could be no surrender. This did not shake him, indeed as a former General in the Imperial Guard, he was used to situations where retreat and surrender were impossible; as such if anything, the sense of familiarity with this kind of scenario encouraged him!

Despite the rush job the fortifications had been, the xenos would have one hell of a time trying to capture the position. The defenses were situated on the main route to Beijo, a long ramp carved directly into the plateau, with artificial cliffs turning this path into an impressive chokepoint; especially as on his orders, every other path had been blocked. This was now the only way the xenos could enter, and it was a death trap.

Thirty automated turrets were watching the entryway of the chasm, silently rotating from side to side. Armed with archaic bolters and multi las weaponry, they would have no problem in wiping the infantry from the face of this world, though vehicles might prove an issue, as had been proven when the vanguard of the xenos had been repulsed by those hidden turrets.

Beyond that there were three main lines of defense. The first being a mine field one hundred meters wide by one hundred meters long. After that was another band of forty automated turrets, these ones using surplus UNSC weaponry from before hybrid weapons started to appear. The last major line of defense was a trench network, nearly fifty feet wide and stretching a good two hundred feet back. Built in the narrowest part of the path, it stretched from one side of the chasm to the other. Reinforced by several bunker complexes and lines of razor wire; and stationed on the edges of the cliffs were multiple mortars, armed with plasma dispersion shells. Such a blast would be more than enough to turn an infantry company, as had been proven during the earlier engagement, into nothing but smoldering ash. Several larger turrets would hopefully provide a decent amount of covering fire, to protect the defenders if they were required to retreat to the final defense position…the Castle St. Angelo, which was currently being constructed by the small engineering unit under his command…If the invaders got past that…

Suddenly, he glanced up, brought back to the present by a buzzing sound. He glanced at the vox caster. He took in a deep breath, as he reached to it, picking it up with his hand. He held it up to his ear, already knowing what was going to be said.

A calm female voice spoke, "The xenos forces moving through the entrance to the chokepoint, Sir…Thousands of 'em….They'll be in the mines in a matter of minutes."

Alexander sighed in relief, as now he would have something to keep his attention in the present, before quickly barking a response: "Activate the turrets and prime the mines. And give me an open channel to every living being on the planet."

 **With the Turian Third Infantry Legion: First Maniple: Second Cohort: Sergeant Caelrain**

Sergeant Caelrain was a career soldier, he had joined the Third Infantry Legion right out of basic training. His homeworld, Carthaan, had provided quality troopers for the Hierarchy for centuries, and he was grateful that he had that legacy to remind himself of as well as his training as they passed the wrecked remains of yet another one of the vanguard detachment's IFVs. It had been completely blown apart by some kind of explosive.

As his unit continued the advance a crackled broke over his radio, and an unfamiliar voice broke through. He was startled as he realized that it was not a Turian speaking: "Enemies of the Imperium, hear me. You have come here to DIE!"

"The Immortal Emperor is with us and we are invincible! His soldiers, will strike you down… His war machines, will crush you under their treads…His mighty guns will bring the very sky crashing down upon you!"

"You cannot win. We are the Shanxi Primus CDF, and today is OUR VICTORY DAY!"

As soon as the voice stopped speaking, explosions ripped through the advancing Turians. The sudden explosions caught them off guard, but the sergeant looked at his radar and froze as his motion tracker detected THOUSANDS of mines all around him: "MINES! We've walked into a bloody minefield, they must have activated them after whoever that was finished speaking. Tred very carefully troopers!"

The troopers reacted accordingly, with their radars active they were able to avoid most of the mines, though some unlucky troopers still stepped on a mine and took out whole squads. Despite this they were still advancing…and then the hidden turrets opened up. Whole squads evaporated under a hail of laser bolts and some strange projectile which killed troopers despite their shields being active. It was a slaughter, most of the senior officers of the legion fell quickly, and soon the orderly advance turned to a full scale rout.

But they would be back…They had numbers, and the defenders HAD to run out of ordinance at some point…Right?

 **Trench Line: Two hours later**

CDF Sergeant 'Klaws' Calgaz, a forty year old black haired male, could see them coming. Hundreds of floating and wheeled vehicles, supported by masses of infantry were swarming towards the main defensive line. It had taken these xenos longer than expected to breach the mines and auto turrets. He chomped on a cigar as he looked over the battlefield, the Sergeant was formerly from the Blazian 9th Fusiliers of the Imperial Guard and was well used to these kinds of long odds.

Something that stood him out from his fellow CDF troopers was that he refused to wear the "fancy techno-sorcery" (ODST armor) that the CDF was issued; instead preferring to rely on the flak armor he had been first issued in the guard. He also eschewed the use of the HEW line for the older Mars Pattern Lasgun he had been first issued.

One of the spotters yelled out as his partner fired his sniper rifle: "TWO HUNDRED METERS!" As around him the CDF assigned to the trenches formed an organized gun line to repel the invaders began to form. Most of the troopers on this line carried basic personal weapons, the more dangerous toys being kept in reserve or stationed in bunkers and the scattered auto turrets. 

"150 METERS!" The sergeant barked back: "Shut the frakk up, before I shove my boot so far up your ass that it comes out through your mouth!" The turrets around him whired to life, as old but still dangerous Executioner Plasma Cannons powered up…For a brief second there was silence, and then with a whine, and a blast of light and heat, the plasma cannons fired.

Heated to be roughly the temperature of a dying star, the bright; almost blinding projectiles, slammed into the front lines of the skimmer craft and more conventional apcs. They were reduced to nothing but ash within microseconds. The dazed infantry that managed to survive the plasma bombardment were helpless without their vehicles to use as cover, as the heavy bolter, and other anti-personnel turrets that then opened up immediately afterwards...Scything huge chunks of the advancing Xenos to pieces. The Plasma cannons would have been invaluable in dealing with the attackers quicker, but it was believed heavier vehicles would soon follow, so the turret gunners kept trigger discipline to conserve the ammunition on those ancient guns.

Calgaz his lasgun with the three fingers left on his left hand, as with his right, he made sure that his charge hadn't been depleted, something about Shanxi's atmosphere made energy weapons deplete their ammo faster, he would need to make ever shot count. Putting all the confidence that a veteran like him, who had fought for almost thirty years (from a conscript defending his home, all the way up to the assault on the Eye), could project he called out to his squad: "Alright you maggots! Let's kill these xenos quick! I want some time to go take a bath, because the shit on my foot is abso freaking lutely DISGUSTING."

A small but notable cheer rose from his men. The heavy bolter turrets were still spitting out hundreds of explosive rounds per second. Any xenos that was too stupid and rushed forward quickly turned into a leaky pile of blue meat. But despite this the heavy bolter turret ammunition was wavering, despite the advances of quantum lathes allowing weapons designed with them to essentially have infinite ammo some weapon systems were incompatible with the tech (such as the old Tarantula sentry turrets).

Then another shot of the executioner turrets spat out more burning plasma; Calgaz averted his eyes elsewhere, as the bright supernova of energy slammed into another part of the chokepoint. Hundreds, if not thousands of xenos were killed immediately, dozens more horrifically wounded. Plasma burns were not easy to treat, not by any means. He knew from experience, he could still feel the phantom pain from where he lost his fingers to a Tau firewarrior's plasmgun. Calgaz quickly reached into his pants and scratched his ass. He really had this uncomfortable itch that he could not satisfy...Maybe he should have paid attention when the doc was saying what plants were okay to touch.

He pulled the trigger to his lasgun, getting a bright beam of soaring energy to knock what appeared to be a commander in his, or hers (he really couldn't tell with Xenos), visor. Of course, instead of knocking him to the ground, his head exploded like a grenade. After blinking in surprise, a dark chuckle left his lips: "Obsolete and useless my frakking arse." 

Then, he heard clicks. Glancing to the side he saw the inevitable, albiet unwelcome, sight of the heavy bolter turrets being jammed. He swore heavily, as he began to fire shot after shot at the xenos horde.  
Snarling in anger he roared to his squad: "You idiots! Get the turrets fixed, or I flay your skin and wear it like slippers!"

These troopers, like him, were all former guardsmen, so they were used to those kinds of threat; and quickly did so, abandoning their position to fix the turrets. Though Calgaz had little worry about how accurate his men were (they all were guardsmen; that meant that they had been the best of their world's military) he knew that they were not gods. The xenos far outnumbered them, and all though they had most definitely killed thousands in the first opening minutes, they still far outnumbered the defenders. The few turrets were the key to survival.

Return fire soon became an issue. As the vehicles got closer, more of the spined xenos embarked out of their vehicles, using the blasted wreckage of their inferior vehicles to save their skin. A fellow CDF was shot right in the eye, crumbling to the ground in a heap after a torrent of fire finally cracked his visor allowing a shot to pass through. Calgaz grumbled in anger, as he threw aside his spent lasgun, but soon he was grinning as he stooped down. Although two of his fellow soldiers had gone down, that was not the point at the moment. Two lasguns were lying there, just waiting to be used. He couldn't just… deny them….even if they were new-fangled UNSC pattern rifles.

Scooping them up, one in each hand, he peeked out of the trenches, and let out a roar of anger and hatred, as he pulled the triggers. Both of the lasrifles barked and growled, letting out a stream of fiery red hot lances of death. Any xeno that got too close was utterly annihilated as his fire cut down dozens. A charging platoon that was trying to take his somewhat lightly defended area of the trench were reduced to nothing but hot ribbons. He did have to give the xenos credit. They were no cowards. Even if their comrades were cut down in front of them, they still gave their all. More the pity to them, as he enjoyed putting them down like the dogs that they were.

As his rifles clicked empty, he leaped back down to the ground, dodging at least two dozen projectiles. He slammed them onto the side of his hips, haphazardly sticking two extra clips into the guns. He then smacked the clips together, by clapping the guns together like symbols. Locked and loaded, he let out another burst of las fire from his guns; then, he heard a beautiful noise. Only inches above his head, a torrent of heavy bolter fire echoed within his ears, cutting another charging xenos unit to nothing but a steaming pile of guts. That was good. Maybe he wouldn't have to get his hands all dirty after the battle was over. The man then smiled, another bombardment of superheated plasma coming from the heavy turrets from above.

As he stood to his feet again Calgaz reached into his pants to scratch his ass again, firing another salvo of fiery las bolts from one of his rifles, killing two xenos when he wasn't looking, when suddenly, he heard a massive boom. A powerful series of explosions began to ring around them.

"Sir! Bombardment! We can't spot the batteries!" The veteran Sergeant swore harshly: "Then let's give em a taste of our own artillery! Contact Lupus and his men on the cliffside, authorize plasma bombardment. Now Emperor damnit! NOW! Broken Arrow, we're pulling back to the Castle!"

 **Turian forward command post: One mile away**

Hosso Caelrain was previously just a sergeant, now two hours into the assault, he was now commanding officer of what was left of the first assault. To call this assault a failure would be a grave understatement. It wasn't just a failure. It was a monumental collapse. They had not expected the defenders to be not only so well equipped (who the hell would have expected LASERS as personal defense weapons), but so… brutal in their defense of their capital. Of the ten thousand men who were part of the Third Infantry Legion, only five hundred dazed and confused troopers made it back to friendly lines.

Now he watched as the Tenth Mechanized finally started to break through the dug in defenders, though it had cost another fifty thousand casualties to even drive them from their trenches. Seeing the plasma explosions drop on what was once the defensive line, he knew that casualties would climb even higher.

Shaking his head he hopped General Arterius and the rest of the senior command could bring a swift end to this, but he doubted it. Don't get him wrong…he had every faith in the general, he had severed under him for over a decade now, but even if it ended soon the casualty rate would mark this as a pyrrhic victory at best.

Night was falling, with victory within grasp and Turian doctrine demanding it the Tenth and other combat capable units pushed on. Those defenders that did not run were dug out and killed through overwhelming firepower. Those that did, and they could concentrate enough fire on, were similarly cut down. Hosso felt no shame in the actions of his fellow soldiers in killing those who fled. He had watched thousands of his kind die in horrible fashion, vengeance was demanded.

He felt pride springing up again as he watched the troopers on the line push forward, their spirit and morale troops was the highest it had been since landing on this spirts forsaken world. Finally, they had broken the defenders, and soon they would be in the capital, ready to end this war on their terms.

Even now the enemy scurried away like animals, something a little incongruous with the iron will they had displayed earlier. But it didn't long for the reason for their retreat to become clear, but by then it was far too late, plasma bombs rained from the sky, vaporizing anything near the trench line.

Luckily, most of the Turian ground forces were still far behind from the trenches, but even then, hundreds if not thousands died without warning. The colonel's blood boiled, he longed to get into hand to hand with these monsters and rip them apart with his own two claws…but he had his own men to look after.

 **Turian Sector Command:**

General Desolas eyed the display with weary resignation. The trenches had been taken, but at enormous cost; and now there was another defensive position they had to take, a massive fortress of steel that had sprung up during the battle.

He felt tired, this battle was forced upon him and his men, and now they were dying in droves because of a dead man's actions. But more than tired he felt hate. He hated that he had to send his own troops into such a meat grinder. He hated that so many of the soldiers he had cared for were slain. But most of all he hated that so many had to die for such a worthless prize!

Even now, dozens of medical teams were attending to the wounded, while dozen more tried to collect the bodies for burial rites, for what good it would do…he had seen what the enemy's plasma weapons could do. And with a steady barrage keeping them from advancing further, the attack was over…for now. 

A calm, but puzzled voice, called: "General."

The Turian turned, glancing at long time communications officer, Helios Alecius a son of Palaven. Nodding the General spoke: "What is it, old friend?"

Helios clasped his talons against his back, as he spoke a report that chilled the old general:  
"We have strange readings coming from orbit, sir."

Arterius spoke in a low whisper: "By the spirits… please don't be more enemies."

 **Next time: 314: On Raven Wings**

Codex: Turian Legion Organization

The Legion is the Turian equivalent to the Imperial Division organization wise. There are multiple types of Legions within the Turian army, though we will only be looking at four in this brief overview.

There are Mechanized Legions, the armored fist of the Turian military; they usually form the spear head of any ground assault, cutting deep into hostile territory and smashing all resistance before them. Typically by the time news reaches frontline combat forces that a Mechanized Legion is in the area, the combatants opposing one have already been cutoff and surrounded. Usually one can find: four armored maniples (comprised solely of tanks), three mechanized infantry maniple (infantry mounted in IFVs and APCs), a reconnaissance maniple, two motorized artillery maniple (MLRS and mobile artillery), and a support maniple (AA and engineers) in the force organization chart of any mechanized legion. These Legions usually are amongst the smallest numerically, the cost of manufacturing the armor and other vehicles needed makes producing large numbers of mechanized legions, or even larger formations, an unattractive option.

Infantry Legions; they fill the role of both garrison troops and combat forces due to the sheer number of these legions in existence. Wherever the Turian military marches, at least one Infantry Legion can be found nearby, ready to do what Turians have done for over a thousand years, preserve Citadel law and order. They are usually composed of: three heavy infantry maniples, two light infantry maniples, one recon maniple, one anti-tank maniple (usually made of towed AT guns, but sometimes tank destroyers are employed instead), two artillery maniples (towed artillery), and a support maniple. These are the most common Legions in the Turian military, and the most numerous member wise, as it is easier to equip and train an infantry legion then it is for any other legion.

Airborne Legions are a more recent addition to the legion types; while Turians have used airborne assets in the past, they have usually been attached to standard legions when the operation they were involved in called for their inclusion, and detached when they were no longer needed. However, at the battle of Galbanath, out in the Terminus systems, massed Turian airborne elements were able to take multiple strongpoints that had kept the Turian armor from advancing; this event proved the effectiveness of massed airborne insertion, and soon Turian High Command had organized several Airborne Legions to fulfil this new role. The standard force organization for an airborne legion comprises of: five airborne infantry maniples, two airborne light vehicle maniples (composed of stripped down tanks and other vehicles with virtually no armor), one airborne artillery maniple (whatever heavy ordinance can be fitted to the heavy dropships for transport), one airborne support maniple, and two gunship maniples (to provide support and rapid transport as needed for the airborne troops). Because of the cost of equipping and training such a formation, they are rather few in numbers but each legion more than pays for itself when used in the right place at the right time.

Special Forces "Legions," Turian special forces "legions" rarely fight all together at once, they are usually deployed into smaller cohort or century sized units, depending on how thinly stretched a spec forces unit is spread one might only ever encounter a squad or even an individual soldier in a battle zone. Special forces legions have no fixed force organizational chart, they add or detach units as needed for the mission they are assigned. Because of the astronomical high cost of training special forces, who are trained to be able to fill ANY battlefield role as well as pilot any Turian vehicle, and equipping them, only the best equipment is ever given to special forces, a special forces legion is the absolute rarest formation in the Turian military.

Codex: A study of the battle of Shanxi Prime, Why didn't the CDF first response fleets arrive before the Raven Guard

One of the most annoying parts of the brief battle of Shanxi Prime from the Imperial Perspective is that the CDF first response fleets took so long to respond that by the time they got there the battle was already over.

Historians have debated over why the CDF first response fleets didn't arrive sooner, but the fact is that the Imperium, even back then, was a big place. Not only that but at the same time that the battle was raging on the eastern edge of the Imperium, the largest counter offensive to date against the encroaching Mega Nids was being waged. History would recall that is offensive was highly successful, and finally broke the Mega Nid threat once and for all; but if it wasn't for the fact that the vast majority of CDF forces had been pulled in to fight as well, that counter offensive might have not been nearly as successful.

Excerpt from the report on the raid on Cadia's Area 90

…Despite the chaos and destruction suffered during the raid, several cameras remained intact from the raider's attack.

They revealed something astonishing. An Ork Mekboy and, unbelievable as this may sound, a Tyranid Hive Tyrant; no I am not joking, that is more Cain's style then mine.

From video evidence, and testimony from the few eye witnesses that survived the break in, this intruder appeared out of nowhere. There was no tell-tale sign of teleportation, nor any psychic energy that was recognizable at the entrance point.

After this pair of intruders cut their way through a dozen Skitarii and "trooper" battle droids using an array of strange gadgets the science bureau is still trying to figure out, they hit the vault. They stole roughly a dozen of the prototype, and highly unstable, "Sunkiller MK III" shells, which as I'm sure you're all aware are designed for usage by the new Charon Mk IV stealth frigate in case a system is irreparably lost or too deep in hostile territory for an invasion to be justifiable, before apparently teleporting away.

Residual energy at the site they left from hints at a massively powerful teleporter, possibly one strong enough to even breach dimensional barriers. Further studies are ongoing, but it is possible that we may be looking at the next big milestone in technological advancement.

Signed,

Senior Imperial Intelligence Agent,

Amberley Vale

Review please and thank you


	5. 314: On Raven Wings

AN: I'm back again with more tales of battle and war. But first, let's take a moment to look at your comments. Artyom-Dreizehn, I just gave them minor upgrades for now…They have some ships at three KM long, but they are rare…After this whole incident is resolved though they're going to start reforming their fleets to be more realistic (Corvettes, true Destroyers, true Carriers, and Battleships for instance). Cosmicsafe74, no, why would it when it has miracle sci-fi metal armor that makes everything we understand today look like shit? Spartan-626, agreed, it doesn't…and they will. But I'm a little tired of Turians blanket labeled as evil or foolish, I mean for crying out loud you don't stay the DOMINANT military force in a universe by being dumb. Also, Unkle WAAAGH did some more work on this one (the Caelrain section before I edited it up was all his work). Anyways let's begin.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **314: On Raven Wings**

 **Raven Guard Flagship: Corvus: In transit to Shanxi Primus**

Legion Commander Shrike, veteran of the OLD Raven Guard, glanced out the bridge's main viewing port, and frowned behind his custom made helmet, which emulated the old Mk VI Corvus pattern. The state of the Raven Guard was not what made him frown, as for the first time since the Great Crusade ten thousand legionaries served in the black power armor of the legion.

Nor was it the fact that Eldar or female legionaries made up a portion of that number. The Emperor's decree absolute at the dawn of the Empire stated that the Eldar and UNSC humans were to be welcomed as long lost brothers, or cousins at the least; on top of this the scientists of all three of the founding factions of the Empire had managed to first create a way to merge the Geneseed of the Astartes with the implants of the Spartan initiative to create an even better warrior, and then later created the Legionary Geneseed template and an additional modification to already existing Space Marines and Spartans to put them on par with the new warrior elite.

No, what caused the frown on the senior commander of the XIX Legion's face was the fact that there was yet ANOTHER xeno menace threatening the Empire. Don't get him wrong, Shrike was a Space Marine through and through and thus welcomed a chance to protect the Empire; but with the western edge of the galaxy under seemingly unending assault by various extragalactic assault, dealing with what the reports from the Frigate Eisenwald brought (and the initial diplomatic findings from interacting with these "Quarians") painted as less of a threat and more of an irritance seemed like a slight waste. But, as the Emperor willed it, the Raven Guard would do their duty and crush these invaders like the pests they were.

The soft sounds of the nearly silent Mk X Imperator power armor coming towards him caused Kayvaan to turn to regard the advancing figure. They were, much like all other Legionaries, roughly eight feet tall and clad in the midnight black power armor of the XIXth Legion; their helmet was clasped to their waist, revealing a female face with an olive complexion and short cut black hair. The woman snapped a quick salute in the new, or would it be old, unification style (one which mirrored the old salute of the Legions before they adopted the sign of the Aquila).

A nod brought sent the new comer to parade rest posture, Shrike mentally approved of this, he had after all heard that the Spartans were the UNSC's equivalent of the Astartes but he had never served alongside one in actual combat…he guessed he would see in the upcoming battle: "Yes?"

The voice that the woman spoke in was clipped and professional: "All members of the Legion assigned to the ground assault are prepared, Legion Commander, we only await the order to drop."

The Legion Commander nodded in acknowledgement and dismissal, causing the woman to once again salute and turn on her heel to leave; leaving the veteran to his thoughts, and the analysis of the report the drone that had just arrived in the vicinity of Shanxi Prime reported.

 **In orbit around Shanxi Prime: Bridge of the Eyes of Palaven:**

Admiral Gaius let out a sigh as he read the report of this conflict….No, conflict was an inadequate term for this. It was a massacre. Casualties from the earlier space battle accounted for a third of the personnel assigned to the fleet, five hundred thousand souls, dead; another tenth, one hundred fifty thousand, critically injured…and with the damage done to a fifth of the remaining ships in the fleet requiring them to be withdrawn back to a shipyard for extensive repairs. In all the seventh fleet was down to essentially half strength at this point.

Those numbers were before the casualties among the soldiers on the ground were taken into account. Of the five hundred thousand troopers deployed to the surface, over one hundred and twenty five thousand had already fallen. Most of those casualties, eighty five thousand, were from trying to take that spirits damned defensive line; twenty thousand airborne legion members had been lost in abortive recon attempts over the plateau or landing attempts …another ten thousand had been killed by automated defensive positions dotted throughout the countryside. But the main concern was that damned tank rampaging behind their lines, it had already destroyed several armored legions, and was now advancing on General Atreus' command post. Nothing could stop that tank, he had even personally ordered a frigate to engage it, but it not only failed to kill the tank, but was not the first space ship lost to tank fire in the entirety of Citadel history.

As he took a sip of tea one of his aides brought him, he mused bitterly over this encounter: _"This will go down in history as the worst defeat a Battle Fleet has ever suffered…This one 'battle' will destroy the reputation of the Seventh, and by extension the navy as a whole. I'll be lucky to escape with my life for this, let alone jail time."_

A junior officer called from one of the sensor stations: "Sir, I'm picking up strange energy emissions around one hundred kilometers from the fleet's position…The energy just died down, but we're not detecting anything in the area where the burst came from."

A chill ran down the flag officer's spine. Their adversaries had already displayed technology far beyond their capabilities, actual combat effective energy weapons for example, they might even have ACTUAL stealth technology. As such his choice was clear: "All hands battle stations! This may be a false alarm but I'd rather we be ready in case this isn't."

After receiving the admiral's orders, the remnants of the seventh fleet started to form a rough battle line in orbit of the planet…But it was already too late. Before they had time to do more than screen their dreadnoughts and carriers, a massive energy reading blinded the scanners of the fleet, and an intense burst of light blinded anyone who looked out the viewports on the ship. It was extremely brief, but when the scopes finally cleared, and the Turians could see again, a sense of dread hung over them…As now hanging in the blackness of the void was a massive spacecraft: twenty five kilometers long, fifteen kilometers wide at the rear of the warship, and ten kilometers at its tallest point…a true monster of a vessel only visible to the eye due to being silhouetted against the sun.

Then without warning, energy weaponry lashed out from the front quarter of the vessel as it advanced at a speed far faster than a vessel of its size should have any right to move. Within seconds the warship had cleared out most of the rest of the battered remains of the seventh fleet. Those that were not destroyed out right by the energy weapons, or the massive triangular warship smashing into them, were soon fighting desperately against boarders launched from the black behemoth. Only a few frigates escaped this fate by diving into the planet's atmosphere, at the same time the opposing warship deployed hundreds of drop pods from its underbelly to the surface.

The resistance put up by the Turian marines and crew members was valiant, everywhere that could be fortified was turned into a strongpoint; and every weapon, including those of armored vehicles and light walkers aboard the ships, was turned on their attackers…Against any other foe, it may have been enough. But this was not any other foe.

These were Legionaries, the Adeptus Astartes…Perfected at long last by their own creator, the Emperor. These super soldiers were clad in the best war plate the Empire could produce, armor that made them completely immune to any weaponry the defenders could use against them. Not even decompressing sections of the ship slowed them for longer than a second. But they had no issue tearing through the defenders, their Gladius pattern Bolters, monstrous weapons able to switch on the fly between mass reactive high explosive forty millimeter shells and various other options on the fly, had no trouble killing the defenders in droves. Every second hundreds of the decimated seventh's crew died.

The radios were clogged by the screams of the dying and wounded, making coordination all but impossible against these monsters, these demons. Gaius had no choice, if any of his men were to live to see the end of the day…He opened the one emergency channel everyone would be able to hear: "I am Admiral Gaius, commanding officer of the Turian Seventh Battle Fleet…I hereby surrender the remaining forces in orbit, on the grounds of expecting fair and decent treatment according to common decency."

For a minute he feared that the surrender would be ignored and the slaughter would continue; but then a voice replied back, calm and calculating: "This is Legion Commander Shrike, I accept the surrender of your 'fleet.' You and your subordinates will stand down, xeno, and await instructions. Any movement of your force beyond normal drift will be considered hostile, and we will act accordingly."

 **On the surface of Shanxi Prime: Castle Saint Angelo, five minutes before the Raven Guard arrived**

The Turian invasion had been a failure from when they first landed in the midafternoon. The outlying settlements had already been evacuated long before they landed, and turned into booby traps with automated turrets ripping into anyone who entered the area. Then came the failure of the airborne legions to even so much as get accurate reconnaissance, let alone land near the capital, due to heavy aa defenses decimating any attempt.

Then came the four hour long stalemate at the defensive line set up along the main route to the city. Four hours to break a simple trench line, all due to the superior technology and small numbers who could fight at a time. After throwing away nearly fifty thousand men to break the trenches, they finally broke through.

Instead of dying down though the fighting had grown even fiercer after the trenches had been lost. Despite losing a tenth of their effective strength the defenders tenaciously and stubbornly held on, every inch the Turians advanced was payed for in blood. Even with their numbers, heavy armor support, and artillery firing non-stop, the invaders were finding it near impossible to dislodge them from the final defense before the city.

And now it was night, while the new assault was being prepared, the survivors of several shattered units stared up at the sky to look upon the comforting sight of the Turian fleet in orbit; a fleet that would soon be called in to smash this last bastion of resistance with orbital bombardment. Despite the grudging respect the troopers felt for the defenders, they were looking forward to the navy slagging the site from orbit, clearing the way for victory.

But then an odd thing happened, a blindingly bright flash of light blazed into existence for a brief moment in orbit. Then more flashes of light lashed out from where the flash had occurred. There was puzzlement for a while, as these were not as bright as the first by a long shot…and they were connecting to unseen objects.

It wasn't until one of the spotters used his binoculars and looked at what was happening that what was happening occurred to the ground pounders. The fleet they had just been counting on was being pummeled into dust. A fact reinforced when they caught sight of several frigates fleeing to sub orbital position…followed closely by hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of small objects falling from orbit.

The frigate's guardian lasers opened up, not doing more than slightly heating the objects hurtling towards the ground. One of the pods slammed THROUGH one of the few Turian warships, causing it to shatter in half as it carried on unscathed to the surface.

 **Raven Guard Dreadnought Drop Pod: Dreadnought Squad Herman**

Brother Sergeant Herman grunted as he heard the impact of yet ANOTHER inferior Xenos energy weapon striking his drop pod. With practiced motions he brought his Conqueror pattern Dreadnought online, the twenty foot tall war machine rising to stand as he did so. Without looking at his two squad members, he keyed in the code to drop his side's door.

As it opened his targeting sensors locked onto the frigate that had been pounding his drop pod, and the soft stomping of the Conqueror pattern brought it forward so the sergeant could fire his war machine's weaponry. A flash of crimson from the guardian laser passing overhead revealed the pitch back shape of the dreadnought, to a casual observer it would look like a taller version of a Contemptor Dreadnought armed with a double assault cannon for a right arm and a power fist for a left…but looks can be deceiving.

As soon as Herman's walker reached a position he could fire from, his machine's main weaponry started spinning up. After no more than a heartbeat, in which he analyzed the ship and picked his target, a literal river of blue bolts exited the gun at the speed of light.

The first few bolts punched through one of the engines of the doomed Turian vessel, causing an explosion, before being dragged down the width of its wings, and then the main body. By the time the Raven Guard Dreadnought stopped firing, three seconds later, the Turian vessel was little more than scrap metal plummeting to the planet below. As he sealed the pod's door and "walked" back to his position, a ghost of a smile crossed his lips for destroying the harassing ship.

But there was no time for congratulations, as they would finally be making planet fall in five seconds.

 **Old Imperial Trenches:**

Colonel Hosso Caelrain didn't process the hundreds of drop pods falling from the sky at first. He was far too busy leading the battered remnants of the previous assaults on the last holdout positions that were still harassing the Turian forces.

The mop up operation had begun two hours ago, and despite the heavy resistance, the Turian forces were beginning to finally clear the area. Already, they had cleared several smaller bunkers peppered around the trench. Turian progress was initially slow, until they discovered that grenades with shield disruptor mods worked nicely to disable enemy weapons and armor…leaving the defenders virtually unable to fight back...Something that had been passed onto command.

Now though they had a bigger problem. The largest bunker left in the trench system was still holding out, and it was situated on a large hill. From that bunker, crews of machine gunners had already destroyed several convoys heading to and from the last mainline of resistance. However, Caelrain had a plan for taking them down.

Earlier in the sub operation, a detachment of the nineteenth Special Forces legion had eliminated the aliens guarding the mortars. The aliens had relied on stealth to conceal the mortars and their crews, but it was no match for member of Black Watch, who's specially modified weapons punch right through the armor of the guards (albeit those rifles were rendered useless as their barrels had melted due to extreme heat). Now the mortars were theirs. Turian doctrine typically did not include light platoon based artillery. They were far too inconvenient, and there was also the risk of friendly fire, sabotage, or simply the damn thing not working at the wrong time (as had rather infamously happened in the formative stages of the legions, which would lead to whole platoons being destroyed). But they would be useful in the later part of this plan.

He cut his musing short as he ducked down, angry bolts of red lasers hissing past his head. He was guarded by an impromptu retinue of troopers, all specialists or men of exceptional valor from other shattered legions. They served as his bodyguards, while he relayed orders to the hundreds of squads and sub operations occurring simultaneously.

Looking at his omnitool's display, he barked an order to his communication specialist: "Squad Rebus, prepare explosive charges on my mark." There was a pause, and as one of the turrets fired out a bright blue globule of plasma, vaporizing another squad of infantry who had been taking cover behind a derelict IFV.

Suppressing his anger he gave the order: "NOW!" Twenty meters away, Squad Rebus began their charge. Covered by at least half a dozen squads suppressing fire, the thirteen Turians charged toward the plasma turret that had just fired. Red beams of energy, coming from the aliens weapons; shot through the air, killing at least five of them instantly. The remaining eight got into range of the crew, and began to fight them in close quarters combat.

Though the aliens had impressive firepower, they did not have that much skill in melee, and they were overpowered in less than a minute. While many of the other turrets they had destroyed were automated, the large turrets that fired plasma, such as this one, required a crew of four: one to fire, two to reload the cells, and one to spot. Though the Turians did not know how to reload the weaponry, they did know how to fire it. It was nice of the enemy to load a shot, just for them.

Squad Rebus turned the hijacked plasma turret to the only other remaining one plasma turret, which was only now turning to fire on the captured turret…unfortunately for them, they were too slow.  
With a mighty blast, a ball of heated gases and energy with the intensity of a dying star, hit the heavy turret, blowing it up in a fiery blue explosion, killing more of the defenders stationed near it. The blast radius was huge, nearly twenty meters in radius.

Caelrain let out a rallying cry, as he got out of cover, leading the charge: "FORWARD! FOR THE HIERARCHY!"

His war cry was amplified by his retinue, followed by hundreds, if not thousands of Turian troopers. At this point of time, the Black Watch that had seized the enemy's mortars began to fire. One of the weapons exploded due to mishandling, killing the troopers manning it and badly injuring a dozen more nearby, but the other five worked as intended. Five shots of plasma burned into the early morning sky, falling down to the ground at mach one. One of them missed, merely hitting and incinerating barren ground. Two of them hit the trenches that had been taken hours ago, doing nothing more than to slow the advance of Turian vehicles, and blowing the tires on two IFVs out.

But like falling stars, the last two plasma blobs fell from the sky, shrieking like banshees. The result of their damage was a sight to behold. The front most section of the bunker had been annihilated by the blast. The heavy weapon specialists that had been manned at the front had turned into cinders, their armor doing little to stop the last generation plasma mortar shells. The aliens that were deeper in the bunker screamed. Metal, rock, and their own armor would melt and fuse into their own skins, bringing them into a world of agony and suffering that was simply unimaginable. Even then, the defenders had another trick up their sleeve.

Half a dozen grenades were suddenly launched out from a hidden location near the bunker. Caelrain watched in curiosity, watching the grenades trail a bluish purple cloud behind them. However, as they landed, the cloud began to manifest into a deadly fog, blown from side to side by the ever changing winds.

It took him a second to understand what they were, as chemical warfare was not common in Citadel warfare, but as a not cautious enough squad fell victim to it, it became all too clear. Slamming on his helmet he roared aloud: "CHEMICALS! HELMETS ON!"

His order was relayed to the rest of the assault force…but it reached some too late, others were too slow, or were just too distracted. As the cloud of chemicals entered their lungs, they began to suffocate on their own blood, as their lungs contracted and swelled uncontrollably. Their eyes wept blue tears of gore, grasping their bony exoskeleton that covered their body. Then a sudden change in wind began to blow this gas cloud across the Turian lines, killing dozens more in mere moments. The victims began to puke, before their own bodies exploded rather violently, some unknown contagion within the grenades making their bodies rip apart. Naturally, the psychological effect was extreme. The ferocious charge was immediately brought to a crawl, as the attacking forces had to slow down, fixing on helmets that thankfully, filtered out the poisonous gas.

From out of the cloud emerged four figures in bone white armor wielding swords and spears, moving at jaw dropping speeds as a loud piercing wail was emitted by their helmets. Several troopers near them fell to their knees clutching their heads in agony, before dropping dead, as these warriors got amongst the Turians… slicing and dicing with weapons that utterly ignored armor, each blow dealt was a mortal wound.

Caelrain bit out a curse as he took a quick shot at one of the attackers, only for them to dodge around it: "Damnit! All squads in my area, concentrate fire, keep firing until the barrels melt!"

At that point an unfamiliar noise reached his audio sensors, coming from above. Risking a glance up, an involuntary gasp of shock passed through his mandibles. The sky was filled with thousands of unknown objects. Reacting quickly, and as best he could at the time, he barked out another order: "Ground forces near my position, prepare for artillery bombardments! Hunker down, now!

As he issued this order, he curled his body, trying to hide his face and neck from the incoming shrapnel, knowing that it would likely be for nothing with how high tech their adversaries were. Much to his surprise though, there WAS no explosion…No shrapnel raining down, no plasma energy washing over him and his men…nothing but dust and debris from the earth.

Though as he raised his head to look, he WISHED it had been artillery. Forty meters away was a black metal object, the sides of which blew open, and ten eight feet tall beings emerged. They were clad in pitch black armor with white highlights, which looked far more advanced than anything the Turian Hierarchy had ever encountered; massive weapons that screamed death to any they were pointed at were wielded by these massive figures.

Turians were known for their resolve in battle. It was a well-known saying amongst another ferocious race, the Krogan, that one would not see a Turian's back unless they were dead. The Turian Legions had fought many threats before; Batarian Pirates and Slavers, Krogan Mercenaries, and dozens of smaller threats that the galaxy would never know of. The Legions were known for their bravery. They were stalwart against all foes. These, were different, Caelrain could feel it.

Before the Turians could fully respond to these figures, the armored giants opened fire. Dozens of troopers fell in the opening salvo, and many more fell quickly. Every pull of the trigger resulted in a death, whether from explosive shell laser beam or plasma bolts, as the armored figures fanned out.

Despite this surprise assault, the Colonel remained undaunted and calmly continued issuing orders, as was expected of an officer in his position: "Take cover, and return fire. Don't present more of a target than you have to. Co-ordinate your fire on one target at a time"

They were just tougher versions of the defenders. If anything, they could be taken out just as easily with their improvised tactics. If they focused fire, and utilized regular anti-shield ammo, they could easily take them down. He would be proven wrong. Very, very wrong.

Hundreds of Turian weapons fired simultaneously at one target. The new comers did not even bother to take cover. Caelrain thought they were just suicidal, afterall logic dictated taking cover when out-numbered THIS badly (Caelrain commands a detachment five thousand strong). He was proven wrong, as a blue shimmer of energy covered the creatures; the bullets from the Turians weapons simply pinged off without leaving a scratch, and it was demoralizing to see that these new adversaries had defensive shields more than a match for the troopers they had been fighting.

Still the Turians fell in droves under the guns of their attackers, and the blades of the white armored figures. Snarling inarticulately in anger Caelrain issued an order to his troopers: "By the spirits, pull back! Pull back, engage tactical withdrawal!"

To the credit of the troopers under his command, they fell back in good order with squads providing cover fire to each other as per regular doctrine. But it was in vain, rounds simply bounced off armor and shields or were effectively dodged, while more and more valiant Turians fell. It got to the point where bodies began to simply roll down the hills, rivers of bluish purple blood pooling down from their bodies onto the dry soil.

Suddenly, there was a massive impact, as one of the nigh un-killable monsters landed amongst them, shouting a battle cry: **"** **Victorus aut Mortis!"**

It wore what could be a jetpack, and held a mighty sword that was covered in teeth. The blade roared like a ferocious beast, as its wielder swung the beast to and fro, bisecting trooper after trooper...turning his war plate a pattern of iridescent purple and black. Caelrain, had grew tired of watching his men die, and finally he took action.

He had been eyeing one of the defenders with a spear, he quickly took out his sniper rifle, and after removing the safety limiter on his rifle, and lined up the shot. His target was barreling towards him at lightning speed. Taking a single breath, he squeezed the trigger... A muzzle flash, the sound of his rifle's heat limit being overwhelmed and the gun's barrel melting, followed shortly after by the sound of a body hitting the ground; the spear that was held in its hands skittered out of the way, sliding right into his reach. Then, he heard an explosion from where the monster was ripping them apart in close combat.  
The bright blue shimmer that rippled across its armor stopped suddenly, its movement locking up slightly.

Caelrain realized what it meant, as the final trooper in his retinue died from blood loss. A satchel of specially modified grenades, at least forty of them, must have hit the sword wielding giant. This was his opportunity.  
He took the spear in his hand, and climbed up a small indent on the large hill, getting some ground, before he leaped.

"FOR THE HIERARCHY!" He roared aloud, holding the spear in his two hands, diving towards the creature. It looked up at him, the helmet's cold visage chilled the colonel to his core. Time seemed to slow, as if the two figures were frozen in time…The Legionary of the Raven Guard, looking up at a Turian soldier falling from the heavens.

Then time sped up again…The spear impacted right into a joint of its armor, from where the pieces of armor connecting it from the neck and head were weak. It pierced through the seemingly impenetrable armor, cutting right through all the way to the other side. The blade shattered upon contact with the other side of the armor, making the shaft of the weapon snap apart.

In its death throes, the being swung with its left gauntlet…the blow found its mark on the Turian's torso. The armor cracked and shattered under the blow, and then his bones themselves shattered into dust as he was sent sprawling down the hill, rolling away. The colonel rolled right into the wreck of a burning tank, coughing out blood.

With his last gasp of air, two words left the soldier's lips: "Worth it."

 **Turian main assault on the Castle St Angelo: Saren Arterius**

Saren Arterius was fairly new to the Nineteenth Special Forces Legion, he had been assigned to the Black Watch detachment of said legion right out of basic. While he had fought in several pirate cleansings, this was brand new ground for him, having to fight a species outside of the Council's experiences.

A wry but of humor broke through his concentration as he ducked behind an outcropping near the wall they were about to detonate to enter, _"Without even knowing it this race has confirmed all the council's fears about what could lie beyond a dormant relay."_

The detachment's commander's voice broke over the platoon radio: **"Detonating charges in thirty seconds, prepare for close quarters combat…What the!? What are those things?"**

The last part of what the lieutenant was saying caught the unit off guard, Saren turned his head to look at the sky, as did the rest of his unit, and was surprised to see hundreds of shapes falling from orbit. One plowing through a frigate, destroying the ship while emerging intact, and another fired on a second frigate destroying it in seconds.

Ten of the objects dropped in the area around the 19th and their support elements, disgorging their lethal cargo. Much like what had happened to Caelrain's detatchment, slaughter ensued. The men of the legions in the area fell like wheat before a scythe, but with horrific wounds instead of clean cuts. Red beams of energy cutting through armor cleanly, but melted unprotected Turian carapace as it passed through, leaving those who were merely wounded in horrific pain before they were put out of their misery.

Blue globules of energy, reminiscent of the heavy turrets that had caused so much death amongst the Turians already, impacted on their targets and exploded with such force that usually the trooper on the receiving end was vaporized…though there were a few "lucky" ones who managed to survive, usually missing limbs or in extreme cases half their body.

Explosive rounds also tore into the Turians, despite being projectiles from what the engineering corps had determined the Kinetic barriers on the soldiers was completely worthless. Saren watched helplessly as his sergeant, a woman he had a slight crush on, was blown apart by a single bolt round to the torso, raining bloody giblets down on her squad.

But that wasn't the worst of it, there were others… things that made Saren remember his ancestor's accounts of his service during the Krogan Rebellions. They wielded melee weaponry, snarling weapons with microscopic rotary blades along their cutting edge's length or weapons that crackled with energy beyond the comprehension of Citadel science. Every blow from these weapons maimed a soldier who was lucky enough to dodge at the last possible second, or killed in a gory spectacle that would haunt his dreams.

Despite their power there were only one hundred of these new comers…And yet nothing they did could bring them down. Even using the tactics the mop op operation had discovered did virtually nothing, yes they did slow and temporarily disable some of the armored giants, but there were too many of them for the Turians to be able to capitalize on this to even take down one.

As Saren emptied another "clip" worth of bullets into one of the unstoppable juggernaughts, one of the black armored bringers of death turned his gun on him. A squeeze of the trigger and the Turian's arm was on the ground, separated from his body by a stream of crimson energy. Now weaponless he watched helplessly as one of the enemy melee fighters advanced on him wielding an axe that crackled with power. There would be no escaping this.

But then a voice broke over the open comm channel: **"This is General Arterius, commander of the ground forces assigned to the Turian Seventh Fleet. I hereby offer my army's unconditional surrender, and pray for treatment worthy of the valor of my men."**

The armored giant ceased his advance upon that transmission from Saren's elder brother. The last thing the Turian special forces trooper saw before blacking out from pain and shock at this defeat was one of the platoon medics rushing over to him.

 **Turian Command: five minutes earlier**

General Arterius had been outside his command post when the Raven Guard arrived in system. He stared up at the stars in shock as he watched the orbital assault the defender's reinforcements carried out. His fighting force was already depleted, and now further enemies had arrived. Rushing back inside he began organizing his defenses as best he could.

He called over to his communications officer, one Andronicus Kryik: "get in contact with our units not currently engaged, have them gather together and form defensive positions. If we are to have any chance of surviving we need to concentrate our fire power so that the enemy can't even get close to our troops without suffering heavy casualties!"

Kyrik nodded, and carried out his general's instructions; barely even acknowledging his communication officer's nod, the General turned to Helios: "Get in contact with the surviving frigates, tell them to provide as much fire support as they can, main battery guns authorized."

Helios paused: "You are aware Sir, that there is little hope of this turning the tide if they have orbital superiority, correct?"

Normally such a breach in discipline would not be tolerated, but Helios had served with the General from the day that they had both joined up all the way until now; so some leeway was expected: "I know old friend, but it's either that, or I automatically issue the surrender of the remaining soldiers on this accursed rock….and we both know that the Hierarchy is more damning of men who do not give their all then they are of anyone short of traitors…I will not let the men under my command suffer for this."

Nodding, Helios carried out his old friend's instructions. Glancing back at the tactical display he had set up earlier, Arterius cursed under his breath. The alien commander of the relief force was good, he had deployed his forces in an encircling maneuver that entrapped them between the new arrivals and the unbroken fortress. While eleven of the pods had fallen closer to the fortress, the rest were all BEHIND his lines.

The tactical table showed him none of the gory details thankfully, but he watched as entire legions were pushed to near annihilation. The frigates fired a few rounds, but they were ineffective, and soon enough they were silenced…one by that damnable tank that had run roughshod all over his forces since landing, and the others either by fire support from the opposing fleet or by heavy weapons from the ground forces.

As the last frigate went down in smoke, and the thirtieth infantry legion shattered, all hope of even holding the aliens at bay was gone. There was only one path left open to the Turians that would preserve even a modicum of dignity and a shred of their forces.

Letting out a deep breath, the Turian General spoke: "Get me an open channel to everyone, allied and enemy, on this planet."

A few seconds later Kyrik informed him that he had his channel. Clearing his throat to get rid of any hesitance, he spoke clearly: "This is General Arterius, commander of the ground forces assigned to the Turian Seventh Fleet. I hereby offer my army's unconditional surrender, and pray for treatment worthy of the valor of my men."

 **Bridge of the Corvus: ten minutes later**

Legion Commander Shrike looked over the reports from the battle, and felt contentment. The planetary garrison had been out numbered horrifically, almost one thousand to one, and held out long enough for the XIXth Legion to arrive. Not only that, but they had only lost a single Legionary during the battle, the xeno who killed hi had gotten extremely lucky, but it had exposed a minor weakness in the armor…One that the AI, a Vulkan Class, in charge of the foundries was working to correct before their next encounter with the Turians.

Already CDF forces that were no longer needed on the western edge of the Empire were arriving, their ships and armament upgraded to the standard of the Marines and Navy. Soon Shanxi Prime would be unassailable. But that left the commander of the Raven Guard with a conundrum.

His forces were not needed in the west at the moment, and soon the east would be fortified beyond the abilities of these primitive Xenos to assail. So he was currently without orders, though he could take creative liberties and go on the offensive as a way to protect the Imperium's interest. In fact, the more he thought about going on the attack to teach the Turians not to interfere with the Empire, thus securing it's eastern border even more, appealed to him.

As such he opened the ship wide communications: "Brothers and Sisters, the strictest definition of our orders has been fulfilled! We have repelled the xenos threat to the Shanxi system, and soon the CDF will finish turning this world into a fortress to rival that of Cadia! But while this is true, we have not fully completed our orders in the truest sense, Shanxi might be fully in Imperial hands for now…but how long until it comes under threat again?"

"I say we do not give the enemy even ONE chance to counter attack. As such I have decided that we will launch a decapatory strike at the Turian military. Our target will be their primary "dreadnought" shipyard in their home system, Palaven!"

"So make yourselves ready, and go to the forges to receive your upgraded wargear. We leave in an hour."

Having said his piece he sent a message with his intentions to Terra. The reply back was short, and to the point: "Destroy Palaven's shipyards, and put on a show of force to bring them to the negotiating table. The Emperor commands it."

With his decision approved by the highest authority in the Imperium, Legion Commander Kayvaan Shrike waited for his forces to ready themselves. They would show why it is a bad idea to wake a "sleeping giant."

 **Next time: 314: Target: Palaven**

Codex Legionary Geneseed Template: Much of the details behind the Legionary geneseed template is highly restricted to the upper echelons of the Empire. But even then, some of the information is unrestricted. Here's a summary of it.

1: Legionary enhancement relies heavily on technology from the Ancient Human Empire of the UNSC timeline to stabilize the much more intensive geneseed enough to be usable on a mass scale.

2: Due to the UNSC already having experience creating female supersoldiers; their expertise, combined with that of the Emperor himself, allowed the group assigned to creating the new generation to, with a LOT of shenanigans and brute forcing, get the geneseed compatible with female biology.

3: Because of the Ancient Human Empire's tech, which is superior even to that of the "Dark Age of Technology," each Legionary is to an unimproved Space Marine or Spartan (ie, not given the augments of the other, and then the further boost to their abilities to bring them on par with the Legionary geneseed) was to an unaugmented Imperial Guard recruit.

Mk X Imperator Power Armor: The Imperator pattern power armor is the pinnacle of general use power armor. Using the most advanced technology to date and the most protective metal formula, the Mk X takes all that was good with the old Imperial Power Armor, and merges it with the Mijolnr Mk VI. It is nearly silent to move in, has energy shielding, allows faster reactions than out of the armor, and due to the new metallurgical composition much slimmer than the old Imperial armors, while providing much higher levels of defense.

(look wise picture a hybrid of the Mk X the Primaris wear and a Mk VI Mijonir suit)

Codex Battle Barge Corvus:

The Corvus is the latest Battle Barge to leave the shipyards of Mars. 25 Km long, 15 km wide at the rear, and 10 km tall at its highest point in a wedge shape; the Battle were designed with the concept of long term use and ease of upgrade in mind. Currently most of the systems of this vessel are controlled by "dumb" AIs to allow the actual Legionaries to carry out more important duties, such as planetary invasion.

Equipped with twelve super heavy energy turret batteries (six on top, six on the bottom), forty eight heavy energy turret batteries, six hundred energy turret batteries, two thousand point defense batteries, and four Exterminatus grade weapon batteries; the newest Battle Barges are capable of wiping out entire fleets on their own.

On top of being able to dish out a lot of destruction it can whether unprecedented amount of firepower being thrown at it. Only another Battle Barge, or an even stronger vessel, even has a hope to defeat another.

Beyond its fire power and protection, the Battle Barge has multiple quantum lathes to manufacture new equipment, ranging from ammo all the way up to escort frigates; multiple apothecary chambers; dozens of launch bays for everything from the ubiquitous drop pod to frigate sized vessels.

Codex Conqueror Pattern Dreadnought:

The latest and greatest pattern of Dreadnought, the Conqueror is an impressive war machine. It's defenses are far superior to any other walker short of the prototypes in production to replace the Geara Zulu, and it's fire power would make a Tau drool in envy. A Conqueror is intended for one thing, conquest and victory in battle. These walkers can wade through fire that would make even Terminators hesitant, and fight monsters and machines that would be threats to tanks.

These Dreadnoughts have one feature that truly sets them apart from the older patterns, they can be piloted without being entombed in them. So even regular Legionaries can use these powerful engines of destruction, and if necessary leave the confines of these Dreadnoughts and fight as line Astartes.

Review please and thank you


	6. 314: Target: Palaven

AN: Hello everyone, it's been a while. Spartan626, Raven Guard was the only option deployment wise, the rest were all still on the western front as I mentioned…The wolves will get their moment, as will all the other Legions. CapitalClassShip, you'll see what I do. sonic3461, the Turian disrupter mods screwed with the electronics, disabling that feature. MEleeSmasher, that's actually one of the codex entries this time around. DahakStaz, One ship…it is 25 km long though. As for the rest, you will see as I get to that. Two more things before we start. First, thank you once again Unkle WAAAAGH for contributing a couple of scenes. Second: I have a poll on my profile you need to take a look at…Nothing to do with this particular fic, but it has to do with my plans going forward in general. Anyways let's begin.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **314: Target: Palaven**

 **Palaven: An hour before the end of the last chapter**

Palaven, the jewel in the Turian Hierarchy's crown, and their home world. For over fifteen hundred years, ever since the end of the unification war and the subsequent Krogan war, it had stood as a bastion of strength and power in the Citadel alliance.

The system, due to the warrior society of its inhabitants, was the most fortified system after the Citadel itself. Hundreds of defensive satellites, each containing as much fire power as a cruiser and carrying whole wings of fighters and bombers, were spread throughout the system. The most powerful single fleet in all known space; one hundred fifty cruisers, seventy five dreadnoughts, fifty heavy dreadnoughts, twenty "super carriers," and five bulk transports that had been turned into massive guns whose sole purpose was to snipe high value ships before they got in range of the rest of the fleet.

If that wasn't enough the planets and moons of the system had thousands of anti-orbital guns, ranging from minor weapons only really good against frigates to massive complexes designed to down whole dreadnought squadrons…and millions of full time soldiers stood ready to repel any invaders, with the entire population of the world, ranging in the tens of billions, ready to form militia groups and aid in the defense of their homes.

Beyond its daunting defenses, the system was also known to hold the largest shipyards in Citadel space. Operating at full capacity, this tens of thousands of kilometers long complex was able to create squadrons of dreadnoughts in mere days, and hundreds of cruisers in the same amount of time. The Palaven ship yards were so efficient that other races contracted them to produce ships for them when time was pressing, ranging from small independent merchant vessels all the way up to cruisers.

The site of the system on an ordinary day would have been a sight to behold in and of itself, but this was not an ordinary day. The badly damaged ships of the Seventh fleet had pulled into the yard for repairs an hour ago, and delivered sobering news to high command. The Seventh fleet had been mangled by unknown aliens on the other side of a relay after launching an expedition to avoid an all-out war. They left nothing out of their report.

Recriminations and arguments blazed up over this, various factions within high command using this to justify their agendas. In the end, Primarch Julius, the current head of the Turian military, had to step in. His decision was absolute, and final. Six whole battle fleets, the largest single fleet formation since the Krogan rebellions, would gather at the home system, before heading to reinforce the beleaguered Seventh.

With his orders issued, the Turian military carried them out. The battle fleets arrived within half an hour, after they were relieved by other formations, and began to hammer out their command structure. Overall command fell to Admiral Aurellius, the much more successful and cool headed cousin of the man who kicked off this mess, and command of the ground forces fell to General Marius, the officer who had already earned his place in Turian history with the massed airborne assault that he carried out that led to the Airborne Legions.

This organization had taken another half an hour, and now the fleets were lined up for inspection by Primarch Julius. The inspection was broadcast all over Citadel space by news crews, though the reason for such a grand assembly had yet to be revealed to the galaxy at large.

 **Citadel Station: Council Private Chambers:**

The three most powerful political figures in the Citadel Alliance, the Councilors, sat in tense silence while they waited for the other to speak first. Representing the Asari Republics was Matriarch Tevos, due to the long life span her people were blessed with she had served on the previous three councils and was thus the most experienced there. Glancing at her two compatriots, she took in their familiar appearances.

For the Salarian Union, Lokar Ax, a brown skinned Salarian with numerous age wrinkles who wore a black and gold full body robe, was young compared to his two colleagues, but due to the short life span of his people the forty year old was nearing his death; he had a strong grasp on the current politics of the Citadel, and ties with the STG that allowed him to have knowledge that he should not. Knowledge that usually liked holding back, unless it was relevant to the topic at hand…beyond that he played the political game like a chess board, cold and calculative; despite his abrasive personality, his actions had aided in defeating several attempts by the Batarians to get an exemption to their slaving ways, and information he had passed on helped eliminate several prominent pirate groups.

For the Turians, the current incumbent councilor was Brutruns Bromidonis was an odd one amongst his species. He was as disciplined as any other scion of Palaven, and he was as militarily focused as the rest. But what made him odd was his physic, while most Turians were lean, he had a musculature that would make a KROGAN envious…He had even beaten a Krogan assassin to death once, how he had managed to remove the Krogan's skull to use it as a weapon without killing the giant lizard first was still a mystery to this day. He was clad in an armored version of the standard councilor robes, but the color of the robes was a deep purple, the so called "Legionary Purple" among the races of the Citadel.

The silence in the room was finally broken when Ax spoke in a mildly irritated voice: "Bromidonis, I'll cut straight to the chase. Is this current fleet redeployment intended to claim unknown territory and resources to feed your people's war machine? Because if it is you should have contacted me first, and I could have had my contacts in the STG ease this operation, for a small cut of course."

Tevos' right eye twitched in annoyance at that, and before she could berate the Salarian for his assumption Brutruns gave him a flat look: "No Lokar, this is not at attempt to secure more resources." A sigh escaped the Turian's mandibles, "Although I wish it was. This information will be out soon enough, but here it is. The Seventh fleet ran into…Complications…while on patrol...And need reinforcements."

The Asari and Salarian both froze at that, and Tevos spoke in a deceptively calm tone: "What kind of 'complications' would require SIX battle fleets?"

The Turian spoke in a calm tone: "Approximately four and a half hours ago, the Seventh's patrol was cut short when they ran into a Batarian pirate vessel, exiting a previously inactive relay. After interrogation it seems they were chasing a Quarian ship, and forced it to activate relay 314. On the other side were three, what are now classified as 'Super Dreadnoughts.'"

After taking a pause to drink some tea one of the aides had provided, and give his colleagues a moment to digest this, he then continued: "These warships had weapons far beyond anything we understand. Admiral Gaius decided to attempt 'gunboat' diplomacy. However the unknowns were not sufficiently hardened against a massive discharge of power from a relay. Commodore Aurelius engaged them, provoking a battle over the colony world below."

"The brief exchange ended badly for the seventh. A full third destroyed in action, and another third so badly damaged they had to be pulled back for repairs…These were not 'field repairs,' whole decks were destroyed by the unknowns. When they retreated the remaining combat capable forces were preparing for an assault on the planet, high command decided that additional forces were required if this new race had any more ships of that caliber. So I would like to pass on a request from the Primarch that the best negotiator the Asari Republics has be dispatched with this battle group."

Dead silence met the summery the Turian councilor had given, and the request he passed on. To Tevos' credit, she immediately got in contact with the Matriarch Council, and managed to get Matriarch Benezia Tsoni's services to negotiate, and the diplomatic cruiser "Gaze of the Goddess" to transport her.

 **Five minutes later: Palaven: Bridge of the Legion's Wrath**

Primarch Julius, an old male from Palaven itself, glanced at the message his omni-tool flashed up, _"So, Bromidonis pulled through. Matriarch Benezia eh? Well that could either be good or bad…She is very good at getting what she wants in negotiations…on the other hand, she has a habit of being willing to compromise on critical points when she has a position of strength, which could bite the Citadel in the ass this time."_

Returning his attention to the windows along the old dreadnought's side, he continued to inspect each ship in the massive armada and hear their status from the ship captains. Despite how important this review was, the Primarch's mind drifted back to the warship he was on at the moment.

The "Legion's Wrath" was the oldest dreadnought in the fleet, it dated back to the time of the Krogan Rebellions, and as such was basically a cruiser in size due to the advancements of time. This dreadnought had served as the flagship of the first fleet in that conflict, and had a storied history of victories. As it became obsolete it was rotated out of frontline service, and into a ceremonial role (such as for use during fleet inspections).

There was talk of making the ancient ship into a museum dedicated to the Turian Navy, and building a "Wrath of the Legions" as the flagship for a prototype "super heavy" dreadnought design. It was an idea that the old Primarch supported, as he was a firm believer in knowing the past to avoid repeating the mistakes that were made back then.

After another half an hour of inspecting the fleet, the review was finished. Rising to his feet from the chair he had been sitting in, and nodded to the signal officer of the Wrath to tell him to begin broadcasting: "Soldiers and Sailors of the Turian Hierarchy, you are about to embark on quite possibly the most important mission in modern history."

From there the old leader proceeded into a long speech, playing up patriotism and duty, as well as the importance of preventing a stain on the honor of the Turian Navy…he also made sure to lay ALL the blame for this at the feet of the Batarian pirates not knowing when to give up on their pursuit. The speech took another half an hour, as the Wrath pulled back to its regular station near the Palaven shipyards, a brief ping of unknown energy was detected. Much like their colleagues in the Seventh, the Turian Armada went into a defensive formation, and every defense in the system went active.

But it would not be enough, as a blindingly bright flash of light heralded the arrival of the Corus.

 **Bridge of the Corvus:**

Corax, the Warlord Class Smart AI assigned to the Corvus, analyzed the sensor readings the Corvus was generating. Legion Commander Shrike had delegated control over the engagement in space to him, and he would not fail. As the Legionaries commenced their assault; teleporting onto the shipyard, launching a surgical assault via drop pods on several key defensive positions, and using boarding torpedoes or teleporters to board critical Turian warships; the AI began the naval battle with a salvo of lasers aimed at the tip of the Turian defensive line.

The salvo was brutally effective, dozens of "dreadnoughts," a classification Corax felt was unjustly applied to those ships, fell in the first volley. Most of the firepower of the massive black leviathan was being held back, as the AI tested the abilities of Imperial weaponry more thoroughly against the Turians. Soon laser fire changed to plasma, which while some dodged direct hits due to the slower speed of the plasma projectiles, was even more effective as it exploded on contact or in proximity to several targets, whole cruiser squadrons vanished in glowing balls of super-heated gasses.

Return fire started to pour in from all directions, ranging from fighter guns all the way up to the colossal anti-orbital batteries on the surface of Palaven and the moons of the planet…it was, ineffectual. Corax watched in morbid fascination as his gunner "dumb" AI tested various power levels and projectile compositions, the shields of the Corvus barely dropped a tenth of a percent in the five minutes they had been under fire, and then recharged near instantly.

Silently lamenting that the first combat trials of the Raven Guard would be against such pathetic foes, the AI directed the stored drone fighters and MS to deploy to test their effectiveness against the alien's weapons and defenses.

 **Palaven Shipyard: Section D, Battery Five**

Turians, every the practical militarists, had heavily fortified their shipyards. Battery Five in Section D of the massive installation was rated at cruiser squadron strength, its crew was professional and well trained. But all that training was worthless when golden streaks of lightning started filling the chamber. The unstable energy vaporized anything that came in contact with it, and the control room was soon clear of all the crew.

When the lightning and energy died down, four bulky suits of armor stood in the remains of the room. Standing nine feet tall, and imitating the venerable Tartaros pattern terminator armor visually, these Raven Guard were equipped for war. Each carried a different load out of weaponry. One had a heavily modified assault cannon, one wielding a storm gladius…another wielding a thunder hammer and storm shield; and the final one bearing a flamer. They silently stood there, until they moved at once. Their very footsteps shook the ground, as they marched forward. Each footstep resounded out like a thunder, as each of them looked around.

The flamer issued Terminator spoke through the fire team coms: "Vox systems. Online."

The assault cannon specialist, revving his weapon to check its readiness…and make sure the new modifications to the old assault cannon were working: "Brother Eriel here." Judging it ready he continued on with his fire team.

Checking the opposite corridor, the "vanilla" terminator grumbled out his reply: "Brother Sariel, reporting in." Here he flexed the power fist that was on his other hand, and training his storm gladius down the corridor: "Ready to purge the xenos scum."

The melee specialist, slamming his hammer against his shield with a resounding clang, spoke up: "Brother Malkon, ready, check your bloodlust brother…If you go flying off the handle our odds of success go down.."

The last Terminator, the fireteam leader, spoke with a dry voice: "Brother Domiros, also here." Glancing at his hud he was able to see the levels of fuel and check his weapon's internal gas manufatury. "Our orders are clear brothers. Work our way into the station, sabotage the reactors for this section, and return before it explodes."

Eriel said, rolled his eyes underneath his helmet as he replied: "Yes brother. I would prefer not dying to such a pitiful foe." Eriel was the youngest of the squadron, having been a member of the Tenth Company back before the Legio started forming. As Malkon broke down the bulkhead, and part of the wall; Alarms flared, casting the hallway in a deep shade of red.

The corridors were narrow, narrow enough to force them to go one at a time. They were silent, with Malkon taking the front position, followed by Domiros, Sariel, and Eriel watching the rear. Finally, however, as they entered what could be a hangar, Malkon let out a growl of anger, as he was suddenly pushed backwards, bumping right into the rest of his brothers, almost making a domino effect.

Malkon growled, holding up his storm shield to absorb the thousands of bullets that came his way, as well as fighter cannons that had been temporarily mounted on any flat surface that would allow their usage: "It seems that the xenos have been adequately prepared." He slowly walked forward, as the rest of his brothers filed into the fighter assembly hangar.

Hundreds of xenos pilots and engineers had already begun to fire at them with basically no success, even with their improvised heavy weapons. Eriel simply laughed, his genuine laughter being transmitted from his helmets speakers to make it sound almost demonic: "These pitiful creatures can't even drain my shields, let alone puncture my armor. Do they even deserve our attention?"

Sariel simply snorted, as the veteran walked forward, revving up his assault cannon. The few xenos that seemed to have intelligence took cover. The ones that didn't… well...There wasn't enough of them left to tell who was who.

 **Turian Fighter's cockpit:**

Tarquinius Vakarian, pilot in the Palaven defense fleet, threw his fighter into a twist to dodge out of the way of an incoming missile, punching his counter measures active. The fleet had been slowly torn apart by this monstrous vessel; nothing they could do even damaged it. Even the "hyper cannons" of the converted bulk freighters, which could destroy heavy dreadnoughts in one shot, did nothing.

The fighters and bombers of the navy had mostly been left alone, aside from the C.W.I.S. from the massive ship vaporizing anyone who got too close…but now they were in a fight for their lives. Fighters and strange giant bipedal machines had emerged like a swarm of insects, and laid into the Turians with a vengeance.

Vakarian's squadron had been scattered by a flight of enemy attackers. They were fast, agile, and highly dangerous; Talon 1 had learned that to his cost when he tried to shake his tail off with a reverse roll, and ate a volley of laser rounds, incinerating his craft.

Glancing at his sensors he spotted Talon 5 desperately trying to shake one of the attackers off of him; throwing his fighter into a pursuit vector, Tarquinius slotted himself in behind the attacking fighter. As he got into lock on range, he had time to look at the fighter he was going to try and destroy. It was utterly alien, there was a similarity to Asari designs with how smooth and agile it looked…but it was much more aggressive looking. It was a beautiful vehicle but clearly a warship, unlike the Asari fighters, which could almost pass as civilian personal transports (which several small time pirates had discovered much to their cost).

Firing off two missiles, he tracked their progress of the missiles as he fired off a stream of mass accelerator rounds to prevent evasion. The missiles slammed home, and to the Turian's dismay, did no damage as a blue shield sprung into existence, blunting the detonation. But the missile the attacker fired off at four had no trouble tearing through its defenses, turning the fighter into a fireball screaming through space.

He had no time to mourn though, his fighter's sensors let out a warning that an enemy was incoming from above. Glancing up as he tried to maneuver out of the way, he saw one of the bipedal machines speeding towards him, a sword with crackling electricity in one of the bulky machine's hands and a boxy weapon in its other. It was coming too fast for him to dodge fully, and one of his wings was cut completely off.

As he wrestled with the controls, the Turian realized he wasn't going to be able to recover full control over the fighter. So he decided to ram his craft into the enemy capital ship. However as he neared his target, his craft was stopped by a strange energy, and pulled into one the behemoth's hanger bays. Once his ship was forcibly landed, Tarquinius was met with the sight of what looked like smaller versions of the machines outside, and for a fanciful moment as they escorted him to a brig he imagined that these were the immature versions of the giants outside…In actuality, they were just Trooper Phase II mechs stuffed in a Mk X look alike shell.

 **Wrath of the Legion: Lower Decks**

Tactical Squad Tigris had boarded what the sensors had indicated as the personal ship of the "Primarch" of the Turians. The title had earned some derision among the Legionaries, no one but the sons of the Emperor were worthy of that title.

The ten Legionary squad had landed near the engines on the opposing ship, where they made short work of the engineering crew with gladius fire, or just plain fire in the case of one of the weapon specialists. They then split up, one heading for each of the ten decks on the ship.

Even with them being split up, the tactical Legionaries were able to easily clear each deck. No weapon brought against them was even able to breach their shielding; even the odd xeno who used disrupter ammo was unable to really damage the attackers' shield, due to the improvements to the armor made after the weakness was discovered on Shanxi Primus.

As the less populated decks were cleared, the Legionaries started to converge on decks still not cleared as they made their way towards the bridge of the warship. Though as they did resistance stiffened against their advance; the "Praetorian Guard," the best of the Turian military assigned to protect important officers and political figures, held their ground and fought to the death.

Despite the fact that the Praetorians were given the best armor and weapons the Turian experimental warfare division, including "lightning" cannons (which were essentially heavy machine guns that unleashed a torrent of sand size rounds down range, and fired electricity between the rounds); they were little more than speed bumps to the Legionaries, volkite rounds in particular shredded whole platoons through their special "deflageration" effect…Though the good old fashioned flamer was also able to clear whole choke points with a single burst of promethium.

When they reached the bridge, it was locked down. But that didn't matter, as one of the squad members squared their shoulders, and charged straight THROUGH the wall, unknowingly replicating a certain pitcher in early tv advertisement. For a moment, there was nothing but silence as the defenders struggled to come to terms with what just happened…Then the Legionaries moved.

Within seconds the bridge crew, and Primarch Julius himself, had been captured. The boarding action was highly successful, the enemy chain of command was decapitated, and over a thousand Turians lay dead. Squad Tigris egressed back to the hanger of the old dreadnought, and after extracting via an automated shuttle Corax had sent, activated the self-destruct on the boarding torpedo, causing the ship to vaporize…Their prize, the supreme commander of the Turian military and his staff, aboard.

 **Section D: Reactor Room Entrance**

"…1783. 1784. 1785. 1786." Sariel shouted, the assault cannon that was mounted on his arm began to glow white hot, the barrels nearly getting to the point of melting. Thousands of rounds had fallen out of his assault cannon, creating a carpet underneath him. He was lucky that the miniature generator that was active within the cannon was actively making hundreds of rounds per second, trying to keep up with the terminator's godlike rate of fire. He idly listed out the gibbed remains of the xenos operators and soldiers that tried to stop his brothers from finishing their task.

The team of four was now down to three, one of the docked dreadnoughts had opened fire with their broadside guns, killing Malkon. Sariel never liked his team mate, the smug piece of shit that he was (being a scout one day and a Terminator the next has a habit of making people egotistical), but seeing him go down to such inferior foes didn't exactly make him happy either.

"...1791." He reported back on the vox, gunning down another squad of Turians. Truly, tactics had been thrown out of the window and now they were desperately trying to stop the Raven Guard from achieving their goal…And mobs of Turians charged forward to their deaths.

Sariel called out over the vox: "Hurry up the sabotage brothers! I do not think I can hold for much longer!" This comment was due to the assault cannons barrels MELTING. Molten hot metal began to drip from the barrels, billows of steam erupting from the core processor…rendering his weapon useless.

He blinked once as he saw a clump of what appeared to be grenades was thrown in his direction. Sariel turned away, as the assault cannon, critically weakened with its critical systems exposed, exploded. He roared in anger and pain, as his entire forearm was blown away by the explosion, exposing a weakness in the armor. Such a weapon as the relic assault cannon he wielded was never meant to endure this much use, especially this constantly.

He turned away, as another batch of grenades exploded, shielding his vulnerable area…though to his surprise did not coat him in a sheet of flame or shrapnel, or release toxins. Rather, it was an extreme amount of voltage that shocked his suits system, which due to the breach was no longer as comprehensively defensive, temporarily paralyzing him.

Domiros' voice broke over the vox: "Explosions have been planted... We must evacuate." Sariel growled in anger...One minor flaw in centuries old war gear, and this was the end result.

Domiros' voice once again played over the vox, a slight amount of concern detectable due to Sariel's quiet: "Brother Sariel, the bomb must not be disarmed; otherwise the operation will be for naught."

A wry chuckle escaped Sariel's lips as he lifted himself up: "Leave this place brother. I am too wounded to continue, and my armor is no longer proof against the strains of teleportation. I will hold the xenos scum here. Ave Imperator." As the Turians began to try and run past him, trying to get within the central power room, he lumbered forward, roaring like a demon.

After a second of hesitation, in which the wounded Terminator grabbed one of the heavy mechs the Turian had been using and pulped it with his power fist, Domiros replied: "Ave Imperator brother. Ave imperator."

Sariel saw his hud flash that the teleportation matrix had activated, hopefully getting both Domiros and Eriel out of the station. The Legionary quite literally butchered his way to the narrow hallway that led to the power core. The other bridges had already been sealed off by debris caused by brother Eriel's actions. The only way through was through him, and his damaged suit of armor.

He leaned his mutilated and ruined arm on the side of the hallway, painting it red, while with his power fist, he smashed it into the wall, quite literally making a barricade. His heavy duty shields protected him from the hundreds of bullets that hit him, the energy field rippling over him.

In anger the Legionary snarled: "Is this all you can muster xenos? Are you even worth the attention of Corvus Corax's sons? Are you even worth my sacrifice? I have killed thousands of your kind, and even then, you hardened balls of chitin are not even worth a single bolter shell." He added on, rubbing more salt into the wound. Suddenly, some of the xenos had an idea, as they began to shoot at his bleeding stump. The terminator did not say anything, as the bullets ripped into his flesh, lighting his nervous system in suffering; his implants registering poisons and toxins coating the rounds.

Glancing at his hud, he smilled grimly…The detonation timer was about to expire. Removing his hemet so his foes may see his disdain for them, he spat on the ground: "To hell with you."

The explosion ripped through the section of the shipyards, which when coupled with the crippled power core, resulted anything within a two kilometer radius of the explosion to be vaporized. Sariel's last thoughts were of the grim satisfaction that he had taken nearly two thousand of these creatures with him by his own hands.

The results of the Terminator assault on the Palaven shipyards resulted in the entire complex being fractured into hundreds of thousands of fragments, and millions of dead aliens. All for the comparatively "light" cost of thirty dead terminators from the old Raven Guard.

 **Surface of Palaven: Outside of Defensive Battery Herakles**

Herakles was one of four massive anti-orbital defensive positions on the planet of Palaven. It dominated the northern hemisphere of the planet, and protected the capital from orbital bombardment. Armed with dozens of massive mass accelerator cannons designed to destroy any warship currently in service with the citadel or the Terminus warlords, shorter range AA emplacements, and multiple defensive bunkers it was pretty well defended; especially as the Capitol Legion was garrisoned fifteen minutes away.

But fifteen minutes was not something they had. The "Raven Wings," Shrike's personal squad of assault Legionaries, had decided to disable the battery, as a practical example to the Turians that they could strike with impunity at whatever target they wanted.

After landing via drop pod, the squad had employed jump-packs to rapidly close the three miles between their landing zone and their target. AA fire had lashed out at the marines from the complex, and while it was slightly more effective that small arms fire, it was the difference between a pea and a pebble being thrown at an armor plate.

Landing in the compound, the Legionaries set about their grisly, but extremely easy, business of massacring everyone in the base that attempted to fight them. Melta and plasma bombs destroyed entire bunkers, incinerating squads and platoons in seconds. Power weapons tore through armor like wet paper, each strike from the veterans claiming multiple lives.

The assault was over in less than five minutes, dead Turians lay in heaps where desperate last stands were made. The few soldiers intelligent enough to surrender had been allowed to leave, and were told to run VERY fast. They had covered three miles when the facility they had manned was destroyed in a "clean" nuclear detonation.

Similar strikes had occurred all over the system, and now Palaven lay virtually defenseless.

 **Asari Cruiser: Gaze of Goddess**

The departure of the Gaze had been slightly delayed, as Matriarch Benezia had to finish a lecture she was giving at the famed Thessia Academy. The cruiser was making phenominal time, due to their advantage in speed thanks to the Prothean beacon in the Temple of Athame, estimates placed their arrival within another two minutes.

As such the captain, one Rehea Januva (the daughter of an Asari and a Turian), alerted the Matriach of their imminent arrival at the Turian homeworld. Benezia arrived shortly after, just in time to see the Palaven system as they first exited the relay.

The Asari had expected to see the orderly and well defended system the Turian capital was renown as. They expected to see the six battle fleets the Turians had gathered for this expedition waiting for their arrival before getting under way.

They saw none of that. Instead what they saw was a warzone. The mighty Turian armada had been destroyed, the shipyards were in ruins, the defensive satellites had been eliminated…and mushroom clouds were visible where defensive batteries were positioned. To top it all off a massive warship dominated Palaven's orbit.

Doing the only logical thing their cruiser would be capable of, the captain ordered a channel be opened for the Matriarch to speak. Taking a second to compose herself, Benezia began the first diplomatic contact between the powers of the Citadel, and the Imperium.

 **Next time: 314: The Negotiating table**

Codex: Imperial Legion formation

While each Legion of the Imperium has its own specialization; the Space Wolves, the Emperor's Executioners, for instance specialized in brutal close quarters fighting and extermination, also raiding to a lesser extent…While the Imperial Fists were experts in defensive battles and erecting defenses, with a minor in siege assault…They share similarities in their structure and the missions they can carry out.

At the top of the Legion chain of command is the Legion Commander. The man, or woman as the case may be with each Legion, in charge, they are the best strategist and tactician in the Legion. Usually they are also one of their best fighters, so that they don't need to be protected unless the situation is drastic. They are also given custom wargear to better facilitate command and control, as well as increase their survivability, a decision taken due to lessons learned during the Chaos War, when entire fronts collapsed when key officers were assassinated.

The officers bellow him depend on how large the Legion is. Larger Legions, like the Dark Angels and the Sentinels of Tera, have Legatuses, in charge of multiple Battalions; while smaller legions, like the Raven Guard and the Thousand Sons, have Colonels, who are in charge of only a single battalion.

A Battalion, much like the larger Legions, is a fluid organization size wise. It can be anywhere from two chapters, all the way up to ten chapters. Each battalion can operate semi-automatously from the main Legion if necessary, and are able to prosecute smaller scale engagements with ease.

Each chapter starts off at ten companies strong, each company numbering one hundred, and led by a Legion Captain. However, it can increase up to three times that size if necessary. Some chapters have sub specializations, for example in the Raven Guard the "Falcon" Chapter specializes in, ironically given their name, First World War Stormtrooper tactics.

And each Company is led by a Lieutenant, usually a veteran fight who leads from the front. Much like the old days there are various types of companies: Devastator/Heavy Weapons, Assault, Tactical, Terminators, armor, and recon…and even more variants depending on the Legion…The Warhounds have the "Mastifs," a unit type that harkens back to the bad old days, as they are berserkers…However unlike the ones of the World Eaters, who relied on the butcher's nails and the power of Khorne, the Mastifs are trained to control their anger until it's needed…at which point their rage is released in a killing frenzy that will only end when their foe or the Legionary, is dead.

One important thing to remember is that because of the flexibility of a Legion formation, they are prone to forming ad hoc detachments to deal with certain situations. If a city needs taking, a detachment of Imperial Fists might join another Legion; if a high value target needs to die, the Raven Guard may send a sniper to deal with the problem…And on a Legion level "kill teams" emulating the Deathwatch, which still exists (albeit as an arm of Imperial Intelligence), may be formed to deal with crucial assignments.

Codex: The State of the Western Front

For almost six years now, the Western edged of the galaxy has been a near constant warzone. If it's not giant bugs from outside our galaxy, it's armies of robots, and if it's not robots it's some other xeno race with their eyes set on the territory the Imperium controls.

If not for the superior, and evolving, technology of the Empire and the steely resolve of it's soldiers, the galaxy would have been overrun multiple times by now…For no other race could withstand the tidal wave of enemies bearing down on them…Uncountable BILLIONS of attackers break against their fortresses near daily, only to be pushed back, or crushed after making a toe hold in the galaxy.

The constant waring on the front is wearing though, and units are constantly rotated in and out of combat every few months. If it wasn't for the vast war droid armies that have replaced the unusable cloning technology and the might of the Legions, the Empire would have fallen in its infancy…The early victories have paved the way for the modern Imperium though, and every day they grow stronger…but so are their enemies.

Review please and thank you


	7. 314: Negotiating Table

AN: Hello everyone, it's been a while. "MEleeSmasher," rule of cool is usually what I go with for mechanized/aero-spacial combat. You'll see if I do that later. "Slim A Lou Prime," the Imperium's tech is SO far advanced above the ME races that it IS boring to fight them. "sonic3461," in order…Rule of cool…Orders…and the Citadel can't do shit about it. "Captain Titus Invictus," I have plans on that front. So…How will the council weedle their way out of this one?

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **314: The Negotiating Table**

 **Citadel Station: One day later**

The initial contact between Matriarch Benezia and "Legion Commander Shrike" had gone as well as the inhabitants could have hoped…But at the same time it was worse than many feared it might have been. While Benezia had secured a cease fire and gotten the "Imperium" to send an envoy to the Citadel to continue negotiations; the Turian military had been humiliated, and their home system was essentially being held hostage by the massive warship of the "Legio XIX."

While this was a worst case scenario, communications were permitted, and thankfully the reports from the Palaven system, while painting a grim picture militarily, showed that these new comers had restraint, as none of the "civilian" areas had been attacked. Though this was small comfort to the Citadel alliance, due to how badly the Turian Navy had been bloodied.

They had been told to expect the Imperial representative today, and as such the Citadel defense fleet, supplemented by dozens of fleets from the races that made up the alliance, had gathered into a parade formation…to display the power of the Citadel Alliance.

The sudden flash of unknown energy alerted them to the fact that the diplomatic ship was arriving soon, as such the Destiny Ascension, a three kilometer long dreadnought and the flagship of the Citadel Defense Fleet, alerted the Council that the Imperials were arriving. They were expecting a diplomatic cruiser, at most three kilometers long. But what arrived bearing the Imperial diplomat was much larger.

The craft that was visible once the light died down was a TEN kilometer long vessel, it bore similarities in shape to the Corvus; however unlike the very obvious warship, there were no visible weapons aboard the ship, and it was more decorative, indicative of its role as a diplomatic vessel. Across the bow in the Eldar language was the name: "Ishta's Tears."

After getting over their shock, Citadel Control swiftly set about confirming that this was indeed the diplomatic vessel the "Imperiasl" had sent…confirmation they swiftly received. Obeying earlier instructions, they directed the diplomatic vessel to send a dropship to hanger 84 G, a medium distance from the Citadel tower itself, but not far enough as to offer potential insult.

 **Bridge of Ishta's Tears:**

On the minimalistic bridge stood one of the few high ranking Farseers left over from the Craftworlds, Eldrad Ulthran. The Eldar had amused himself while the craft was forged and crewed by studying the "codex" the Imperial AIs had hacked from the Turians during the assault on Palaven. He was quite frankly astonished that so many diverse races were able to work together with minimum friction, but their multi culturalism made them weak and easy to divide along cultural boundaries…something he would exploit if needed.

As the Eldar Psyker made his way to the hanger where the diplomatic shuttle was waiting, he remembered the orders he had received from his goddess and her husband. He was to secure the eastern border of the Imperium against surprise attacks by ensuring the Citadel Alliance would at least stay neutral to them.

When he reached the hanger, two of the Emperor's Custodes fell in behind him. While the Eldar didn't think that they were necessary, he would have been a fool to turn down having two of the greatest warriors in the Imperium as escorts.

As the transport, a descendent of the older gunships of the founders of the Imperium, left the hanger, Eldrad noticed that his two bodyguards were uncomfortable: "I suppose it's strange for you to be back in armor after all these years."

For a second the Custodes hesitated to respond, but when one of them did it was with a voice that sounded like it belonged to an Englishman: "It is a little…To be fair both me and my companion think that just showing our oiled musculature would've been enough to intimidate these xenos myes."

If this was one of the UNSC's anime, Ulthran was certain he would have a very visible sweat drop on his helmet. He had forgotten that these were two of the so called "stripperstodes," or "pillarstodes" if you prefer; it was no wonder the Emperor was so keen to get them out into the galaxy and into armor again.

Thankfully the dropship arrived at the docking bay the "Citadel Control" staff had directed them to at that point. As the main ramp for the dropship descended, the farseer passively scanned the Citadel station for psychic beings…He got lots of minor returns, none of them were worth noting power wise really, and there was no reaction to his scan from any of the signatures, though the sheer number was a little interesting; but it as it was not important to the mission at hand, the Eldar put it in the back of his mind.

 **Hanger 84 G: Field Reporter Yeeshara Darev: Ten minutes before the dropship leaves the Tears**

Yeehsara was a light purple skinned Asari, a decade or so short of hitting her Matriarch stage. In her role as a field reporter for Citadel Channel Eight News she had seen many events; ranging from new laws to the introduction of a few new "minor races," ie not full-fledged members of the Citadel…But none of it compared to today.

The Turian Hierarchy's military, the bulwark of the Citadel, had suffered two crushing defeats in the span of twenty four hours. It was inconceivable. When the Primarch Julius had informed the galaxy of the worst Turian military set back since the Krogan Rebellions, she had been stunned into silence. But then came the "Battle of Palaven," she snorted. It wasn't a "Battle"…it was a massacre.

Now these new comers, this "Imperium," had sent a diplomat to the Citadel. Hopefully the Council would be able to resolve the situation without more lives being ground up by the war machine the Turians had aggravated…Already tens of millions of Turians were dead, and an astronomically small number of Imperials had died in comparison.

Catching sight of the Imperial "diplomatic vessel", the Asari activated her camera drone, can had it focus on the craft. As she waited for the channel supervisors to get their acts together and switch to her camera feed, she briefly studied the ship. Its smooth lines were similar to the ships of her race, but the wedge shape and "wings" on the vessel gave it a unique look.

Her Omni tool gave her a warning that the studio was about to switch to her live feed. Clearing her mind of her musings, the reporter focused on the present. A click from her drone told her that she was live now, and began her report: "This is Yeeshara Darev with Citadel Channel Eight News, today has been an extraordinary day in the history of the Citadel. The Turian Hierarchy, undoubtedly the strongest military in the Citadel, has suffered the worst string of defeats in their existence…"

 **Shanxi Prime: Prison Camp Ten, Saren Arterius**

Saren bolted upright in the military cot he had been laying on, gasping in shock and grasping where his arm once was…Only to encounter a metal object. Glancing to the side he saw a new artificial arm, it was a bare bones copy of his original arm. A sigh escaped his lips as he saw it, he knew that the army or navy surgeons didn't attach it, as otherwise it would have been a lot closer in appearance to his original arm…that meant that one of the aliens had made this arm.

He was of two minds on this. On one side, he had a new arm, and as he flexed it he found it reacted just as well as his old one did. But the other side was that the aliens who had killed so many of his fellow Turians had been the ones to craft it, and give it to him. He was debating taking a knife to it as soon as possible, when a medic from Seventh Cohort walked in. She was un-helmeted, revealing her rather attractive face and planetary markings, she was from Palaven.

Bringing up her omnitool the medic spoke as she flipped through her files: "Good to see you up and about corporal. It seems like the artificial arm the Imperials created for you is working fine…"

Here Saren interrupted her: "About that, is there any way to get this new arm removed? I don't like the idea of relying on a piece of tech from people who were trying to kill us not long ago."

The medic shook her head as she powered down her omnitool: "Unfortunately not, orders from the General…He hopes that when we get back to our space the scientists will be able to remove the arm and learn something of their tech…So for now you're going to have to put up with it."

As the newly promoted soldier got up a thought crossed his mind: "Wait, 'corpral?' I was a private when I went unconscious."

Helping Saren to his feet, the female replied with the same calm tone she had been using: "Battlefield promotion. Your squad suffered roughly seventy five percent casualties before command surrendered; your new Sergeant, Tobrias, promoted you to lead one of the fire teams whenever your squad gets reinforced."

Shakily getting to his feet, the male took it all in. It made sense, in a morbid way, high casualty rates were not surprising, and did lead to promotions…But it was still not something he liked hearing, most of that squad had been through Blackwatch training with him, and it was a heavy blow to him to hear about how badly his squad had been mauled.

The medic helped him get out of the tent, and as he looked around the younger Arterius was begrudgingly impressed. The camp they were being held in had massive walls with guards patrolling along its length; towers dotted the walls in key points, with heavy weapons…More than likely the walls stretched so far down that tunneling out would be impossible.

After getting his bearing, he nodded to the medic, and headed towards the largest tent, around which most of the inhabitants of the camp were gathered around, which he assumed, was a mess hall of some description. He was both right and wrong. It was indeed the mess hall, but it also had a massive television screen in it, easily twice the size of a movie theater's screen.

The biggest shock was what was playing on the screen. It was a live feed from one of the Citadel news networks. He recognized the reporter, an Asari by the name of Yeeshara Darev. The report she gave, even though it was just a summary of the last fourteen or so hours, shook him to his core. Palaven, attacked. Its defenders, defeated...not just defeated but all but annihilated. The only good news to come of it was that civilian targets had been left alone, and that the Citadel had managed to negotiate a temporary cease fire in preparation for actual negotiations.

His trained eye picked up the gunship leaving the massive "diplomatic vessel" a second before the camera zoomed in. It was sleek and angular, no weapons were visible on the craft, but that meant nothing…The level of technology employed by these "Imperials" made it impossible to tell what was armed and what wasn't.

 **Hanger 84 G:**

Eldrad Ulthran waited for the two to exit the ship first, this was the first time these primatives would see Imperials in person…And few things matched the intimidating presence of seeing the almost ten foot tall armored bulk of one of the Emperor's companions. Something confirmed from the waves of emotions the Eldar psyker could feel through his psychic abilities.

Exiting the craft, he walked forward to meet the C-Sec group loitering around the hanger area. It was a small platoon sized group, forty officers with a variety of weapons, ranging from pistols and shotguns to assault rifles and even a few "saw" type weapons. The platoon leader was easily identifiable as a Turian due to his armor, "My unit has been instructed to escort your group to the Council. This way please."

The C-sec officers formed into a protective cordon around the Imperial delegation, per standard operating procedure…though they would soon find that it was unnecessary to do so. The short trip to the elevators was uneventful; but when they exited the elevators on the floor the elevators to the Citadel Council Chambers were, shot rang out.

A dozen of officers went down in seconds as heavy automatic fire rained from concealed positions…The officers took cover and returned fire, and called for backup, but to Eldrad and the two Custodians it was a waste to take cover. The weapon fire from the attackers bounced off the armor of the Imperials like rain off a steel plate, the Imperials were content to absorb fire for a few seconds…But then they MOVED.

Within miliseconds they were among their attackers, blades flashing through the air carving the pitifully armored attackers to ribbons; each swipe of the Custodies halberds felled two or more enemies with their wide powerful blows, while the agile witch blade carried by the farseer claimed foes in rapid succession with cuts and thrusts that bypassed armor with ease. Witchery wielded by the Eldar fried dozens of foes with each blast, charring their bodies with the other worldy energies wielded by the psyker. Every once in a while a burst of fire from the Custodes' pikes would lash out and claim a life.

It was over in mere seconds. By the count of the C-Sec officers over four hundred mercenaries from various bands, ranging from minor leaguers all the way to Eclipse and Blood Pack, lay dead. The question though remained, who had gathered this ragtag band of mercenaries to attack the Imperials, and why.

But that was an answer for another time, at least for C-Sec…Eldrad had already ripped all the pertinent information form the leaders of the various bands, they had been hired by the Shadow Broker to hopefully steal their tech for study and to sell to the Citadel powers to make the Broker a wealthy being.

After eliminating the mercenaries, it was an extremely easy and short elevator ride to the Council chambers.

 **Citadel Council Chambers: At the same time as the ambush**

Bromides growled lowly in his throat as he was informed that the delegation from the Imperium had been ambushed. While he may be angry at the humiliation that had been dealt to his people, the fact that a group was even allowed near the Imperial delegation, let alone had been able to ENGAGE them in combat, was an even higher insult!

He was unsurprised, unlike his colleagues, when the platoon called in to inform them that the situation had been "resolved" by the Imperials. He had read the reports from Palaven with the eyes of a military man, and understood how woefully large the gap between the citadel and the Empire…His colleagues however had been unable to fully grasp this gap until now; Tevos' centuries of peace made her complacent, and while Lorkar might be used to espionage and back room diplomacy, he was no soldier, and that left him easily caught off guard by developments such as the ease with which the Imperials put down their attackers.

But as the C-Sec officers escorted the three Imperials up the stair to the chamber, he pushed any thoughts beyond negotiating as good an end as possible to the conflict out of his conscious mind. As he considered various options the Turians could offer, he missed Tevos' scripted welcome…but he did catch the Imperial diplomat's reply: "Yes yes, I'm sure that usually gets people to be more amenable and willing to see your point of view…But that is when you are dealing with factions on equal footing or inferior to yours. The Imperium is neither."

A cold chill filled the room when the black and white armored dignitary, who had killed hundreds with some kind of lightning from his hands, said those words…And he wasn't done either: "I'll cut to the chase. I have been instructed to offer this deal, the Imperium will reconstruct all defenses and infrastructure damaged by our counter attack as well as return all prisoners from the failed assault…All we demand in return is a buffer zone of territory to fortify to ensure that such an attack will be impossible in the future."

The Turian councilor mentally applauded the Imperial envoy, he had not only cut down the confidence of the Asari councilor, but destroyed the status quo in one moment. Never before had a foreign power dared to even attempt to dictate terms to the Citadel…And it threw off his colleagues, even the vaunted diplomatic skill of the Asari mattered little against this level of aggression, and will.

While his colleagues tried to argue for better terms for the Hierarchy, and by extension the Citadel, Bromides took the time to study a map of the galaxy. The systems immediately around the one beyond relay 314 in Citadel space were of little strategic or economic value to the Citadel, as such it made tactical and strategic sense to surrender them. As he sent his reasons for accenting, and got an agreement back from Tevos and the Turian government, Lorkar put his foot in his mouth: "And why exactly should we even be negotiating with your barbarous people? If the full might of the Citadel is thrown against you, we would be able to crush your 'Empire' in days."

Brutruns expected many different reactions to the impetuous comment of the Salarian councilor…what he didn't expect was the three Imperials to burst out laughing. One of the golden armored figures retorted through gales of laughter: "Oh sure, your pathetic fleets will be sent against us…And die in their billions and trillions against the Shanxi Gate. Your worlds would become lifeless husks as our fleet bypasses your own and destroys everything that your races hold dear. And only then, would we come for the Citadel, and destroy it utterly."

Tevos spoke in a tightly controlled tone, but everyone could tell she was shaken: "Is that a threat?" The other golden armored soldier spoke: "A threat is something that a nation has no intention of backing up. This is a promise. If you reject peace with us now, your Citadel Alliance will be utterly annihilated by our war machine."

Bromides shouted at that point: "ENOUGH! My race has every intention of accepting the peace deal proffered by your Empire, but it seems that my 'esteemed' colleague from the Salarian Union needs to relearn how to handle diplomatic incidents." Glaring at Ax for almost escalating the war to unmanageable scale, the Turian continued speaking: "The Turian Hierarchy agrees to the terms of the peace treaty…"

He was cut off however by Eldrad: "Unfortunately due to the rudeness of your compatriot, I have another demand. The Citadel Alliance will let any race that wants to join the Imperium do so unmolested. And to cut you off, there is no way in hell that the Imperium would EVER join an alliance that limits its members to such an absurd degree."

Chastised and with no choice the Council agreed to all demands. As they were leaving the black and white armored 'diplomat' spoke in a highly amused tone: "Oh, by the way, you remember the Quarians?"

A sense of dread filled the councilors', and the rest of the Citadel species that were watching the meeting, stomachs. Tevos spoke hesitantly: "Yes?"

Farseer Ulthran's mirthful voice conveyed news that horrified them: "They just joined the Imperium. So any hostile action against the Quarians is a hostile action against the Imperium, and will be met with appropriate force. I consider harassing and insulting them to be hostile by the way. Have a nice day."

As he left cackling, there was only one thought on every person in the Citadel Alliance's minds: _"What a dick!"_

 **Next time: Interlude: The Quarian Question, and Days of Peace**

Codex: Imperial starship technology vs Element Zero powered ships

An analysis of the brief battles between the Imperium and the Turians revealed some startling facts. The Imperial warships held every conceivable advantage over the forces of the Hierarchy, except for one. Combat speed. Imperial weaponry could burn through the primitive and nearly useless kinetic barriers and armor of the Turian navy with ease; while sustaining little damage in return for each individual shot. They also could reach their targets quicker through FTL than the citadel's mass relay network could send their own warships.

The one advantage of Citadel ships could out maneuver the more heavily armed and armored ships of the CDF and the Legion in real space…However all the speed and maneuverability meant absolutely nothing against laser weaponry. Despite this fact, Imperial engineers are working on ways around the speed issue to make it harder to outmaneuver future Imperial warship designs.

Of course the Citadel is also working on upgrading their warmachines…though the designers of the Citadel races will be the first to admit that Ezero has a limit in what it can do. Unless they get access to better technology, Citadel analysist predict that their alliance will sink into obsolescence and the pages of history within a century.

Codex: Imperial Navy Report: Operation Exodus

As per instructions from the Emperor, four Fleet Carriers have been used to relocate the entire Quarian Migrant Fleet from near the Perseus Veil, to within Imperial borders. There were some issues with the operation. Primarily the shock of having those massive transports making several "Patrol Fleet" vessels firing on them. This fire was less than effective, and the ship commanders had been instructed not to return fire on the Quarians.

Secondarily several stubborn Quarians tried to stay in the Citadel region, believing that standing on their own would be preferable to joining our empire. They were quickly talked down or if necessary subdued by Quarian security details.

After dealing with these minor issues, all that was left was loading the Quarian ships aboard our carriers. This was carried out without a hitch; in fact three alone might have been enough to transport the entire fleet. Just before leaving the Carriers noted a small but rapidly growing pirate fleet at the very fringes of the system. While they did not attack, it may be worth keeping an eye on the fleets in the Terminus space as well as Batarian controlled space.

From the offices of Admiral Spire

Codex: Carryall Class Fleet Carriers

A new addition to the Imperial Navy, Carryalls are behemoths intended to literally carry entire fleets inside their hulls. These seventy five kilometer long, fifty kilometer wide, and fifty kilometer tall transports can carry hundreds of destroyers and cruisers, and if necessary produce even more using quantum lathes once in the battle zone.

With such a massive ship, defense is paramount. Five hundred meters of armor is built into the design, as well as dozens of redundant shield generators all along the ship. However it's offensive armament is only equal to a Battle Barge, as its main role is to carry warships, the combined firepower between them all more than making up for the lack of direct weaponry of the ship.

However despite its power, these colossal ships are very slow in real space. In the time it takes to cover four times its length, a mobile suit can cover twenty times that distance. This lack of speed leaves them sitting ducks, and Imperial Navy doctrine dictates that the Carryalls are kept in the rear of any fleet formation, or indeed another system over where they can produces squadrons of reinforcements.

Codex: Next Generation Imperial Warships

The newest Imperial warship designs are already in production. While the Legions may not need new warships, the Navy and CDF do. As such Imperial designers have learned from the designs of the Legionary warships, and applied those lessons to the new designs. Despite this there are still some small issues, the CDF ships are, despite sharing the same design as the Imperial Navy, less well armed and armored.

There is also the issue that all these ships are heavily automated, AI is used extensively to fill roles traditionally filled by human personnel. The former members of the Adeptus Mechanicus fight tooth and nail against these designs simply off this one fact.

Despite these glaring issues these new designs that are slowly being brought into production are amongst the best warships designs to ever exist. Once they fully replace the current generation of Imperial warships, analysists are confident that no threat will be a match for the Empire's might.

Review please and thank you


	8. Interlude: The Quarian Question, and Day

AN: Hello everyone, it's been a while. You know what time it is folks, for review. "Axcel," make a profile so I can answer all those, because there is enough to fill a whole chapter. "MEleeSmasher," to be fair, he didn't NEED to be subtle…Plus the perceived arrogance of the Council and being attacked by a merc group hired by someone who the Citadel SHOULD have been able to capture long ago kinda put him in a bad mood. "Dany79," that was a general description of the weapon by an outsider who didn't know their name, aka the CSF officer. "Astrobot1745," This version of the Milky Way is about four and a half times the size of the cannon one…so they have the same amount of territory staked out, just not the populace. As a side note, I would like to apologize about my constant harping on about the Western part of the Imperium and the war there…But it is kinda central to the plot. Anyways, on with the show.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **Interlude: The Quarian Question, and Days of Peace**

 **Reach System: Shipyard 10: At the same time as the space battle between the CDF Squadron**

Captain Zorah sighed as he looked out the window of the conference room, and thought back on his impressions of the system they had arrived in. It had taken half an hour to get to this system via the relays in "Imperial" space.

The system was VERY different from the one they arrived in first. For starters there were four giant stations, all roughly fifty kilometers in diameter and spherical, arranged around the relay. They were bristling with guns and other weapon emplacements. Beyond this line was another more impressive one, with dozens more stations.

Then there was a final line closer the primary planet, but strangely not in orbit. This one was made of over a hundred stations of these monstrous stations. Beyond that there were multiple garden worlds in the system, only one of which was inhabited, and numerous shipyards that dwarfed those at Palaven…and were producing new warships even now.

There were true monsters there. He knew he saw several SEVENTY FIVE kilometers long warships being built, the sensor logs backed that up. But he swore he saw an even larger leviathan being constructed just out of sensor readings.

The primary planet itself was massive, roughly four times the size of Rannoch if the old sensor logs were accurate, however there was only one major settlement on the planet. The rest was still how it was before the colonization began. The one oddity of note was that the planet had seven moons, two of which were in irregular orbits…but it didn't really stand out.

At least it didn't until the sensors, which had been badly damaged during their flight from the Batarians, reported that six of the seven moons around the primary world were…Artificial, unsurprisingly the two at the poles were artificial too. It had taken a moment to understand what that meant, but then it sunk in. Battle stations…four of them…Each with a radius of two hundred kilometers, any assault on the system would be pure suicide.

They had then landed in one of the shipyards surrounding the planet. After they were escorted off by heavily armored soldiers, their ship was deconstructed, much to their horror. Though that had swiftly dissipated when they saw the ship yards arms recreate the ship from the ground up. After seeing this, he was separated from his crew; who, according to the assurances of one of the guards, were being sent to medical facilities.

He had wanted to protest, but he knew it would be futile to do anything. These "Imperials" held all the advantages. And so here he sat for over a half hour. Just when he was thinking that the Imperials had something sinister in mind, the door opened.

He blinked in surprise at what he saw. The figure that entered was dressed in a sharp business suit, and could be described as what a male Asari would look like roughly, granted this individual had hair and was of a tan complexion rather than blue or some variant of purple like most Asari. The man had green eyes and black hair, as well as a sardonic smile on his lips.

After taking a seat, he spoke in a calm tone: "Sorry about the wait. Some things came up in the medical exams of your crew that were rather…unexpected shall we say."

A slight chill ran up the Quarian's spine, but before he could react, the man leaned forward: "Tell me, what do you know of your people's origins?"

Rael was puzzled, but he summed up what was known of his people's origins. Their days in the caves of Rannoch and through their bronze and iron ages, ect. The "diplomat" listened quietly, and intently.

At the end of the summary he was quiet, before an amused chuckle left his lips: "Sounds about right, though your people got one thing wrong…You are not natives to Rannoch. Instead you are descended from a ship we lost due to events far beyond our control."

With that he explained, briefly, how the Imperium came to be…And of the great cataclysm that resulted in the creation of the current galaxy. Naturally, the captain was incredulous. At least, until the evidence was presented…It was reality shattering. They were indeed related to these Imperial species, and the footage of what the final battle of the Chaos War was, he could not truly deny it anymore.

Zorah said he wasn't able to allow anything one way or the other, as he wasn't a member of the Admiralty board; however the diplomat had already predicted that, and revealed that the conference room had a communications suite capable of contacting the Quarian Flotilla so he could contact his superiors.

The call was a long one, but in the end, they decided to agree to join the Imperium, albeit it was by majority decision rather than unanimous…But the Admirals would support the decision no matter their opinion, if only so their people wouldn't be divided over this.

 **Timeline:**

 **11 After Unification/2657 Citadel Calendar:** The Quarian people are absorbed into the Imperium after it is revealed through genetics that they are descended from a warship that crash landed on Rannoch over sixty thousand years ago during the height of the warp storm that afflicted the galaxy. As the Imperium has a secondary objective to absorb any remnants of old humanity into it, they are welcomed with open arms for the most part…Though there are groups that are resistant to doing so, as they believe them to have lost the right to identify as related to the Imperial species.

The Quarians are given colonization rights to several worlds within the vast borders of the Imperium and allowed to settle on Imperial colonized worlds as they desire. The family of Captain Zorah settles on Shanxi, in the same block as the Shepard family.

Of course certain forces within the Citadel Alliance were not exactly happy about this. The Batarians were the most vocal protester, claiming they were escaping their punishment, though everyone knew they were really angry about not being able to prey on them for slaves. Though the sighting of the Corvus on their borders made them shut up real fast, no one wanted to tangle with the XIXth Legion's flagship.

Saren's artificial arm is examined by Turian medical personnel and scientists. They find it is far beyond their comprehension, and while the Imperials could modify it with further tech if they were generous, any attempt by non-Imperial personnel to detach it from Saren would result in the arm becoming useless until reattached to the Spec Forces soldier in question. The only thing they WERE able to find out about the arm was that it operated off of Saren's bio electricity, taking slightly less energy to operate than it did to move his original arm.

 **6.11 AU/6.2657 CC:** With the Quarians now settled in Imperial space,scientists could now begin testing various ways to normalize the Quarian immune systems, as well as bring them closer to humans in abilities via implants. The Quarian genome, while obviously human in derivation, was different enough in many subtle ways that many trials and test runs took place, all with volunteer Quarians.

During this time, the Imperium took possession of the systems ceded to them by the Citadel, and heavily fortified them all.

There were complaints and protests about the heavy militarization of those worlds, again the Batarians were the most vocal, but the treaty that ended the conflict basically let the Imperium do whatever they wanted with the systems, so nothing came of it officially...besides denying those systems to pirates and other criminals. Unofficially though, the STG and other intelligence services were having a hell of a time infiltrating or bypassing the defenses.

Saren starts dating one of the nurses who worked on his arm; coincidentally, it's the same medic from Shanxi, one Tullia Vitanis.

The trial of the millennia happens, the higher ups of the Seventh Fleet are publically tried for their actions. No lawyer from any Citadel race is willing to defend them in court. It looks to be an open and shut case, especially with no defending lawyer…But then an Imperial by the name of Denny Crane takes up the case. In a whirlwind half an hour he overturned the entire case. Not only did the officers get publicly apologized to, not only did they receive monetary compensation, but the politicians who tried to get them removed from the military got removed from their positions for "unpatriotic and subversive activities."

As a side note, this marked the first time an Imperial had been seen outside of combat armor…As such their appearance sent shock waves through the galaxy. The Asari are especially rocked, though after the scientific community gets its collective heads screwed on straight, it is decided that parallel development was what caused this.

 **12 AU/2658 CC:** The Quarian immune system is normalized, while there were casualties, estimates place the number of deaths at three hundred Quarians, they were remembered as heroes of their people for their sacrifices.

The population of Quarians triples in the first year post being able to go around without enviro-suits. While some more puritanical factions within the Empire express concern, they are strongly reminded that they are genetically related, so any action taken to reduce this population explosion would be not well received by the Emperor.

 **13 AU/2659 CC:** Michael Shepard, son of Onrys Shepard and Hannah Shepard, goes for his psionic testing. The five year old's rating comes back as a Third Class Psyker, equivalent to the old Delta Class of the Imperial Rating system…with proper training and augmentation, he might even become a First Class Psyker one day. He has no real specialization he is pre-determined towards, and can do any discipline equally.

Liara T'soni leaves the T'soni estates on another expedition, this time to a system with a new alien species' remains in it. Unbeknownst to Dr. T'soni, the ruins she and her expedition are investigating belonged to the Sangheili. This information will remain hidden until Imperials find out about the site, as much of the information in the settlement has been destroyed.

Garrus Vakarian and his sister, Acria, start training in the Turian Youth corps. Garrus quickly distinguishes himself as the best marksman in his year group. Meanwhile his sister distinguished herself as a hacker and AR specialist.

Saren marries Tullia Vitanis, the two would eventually have three children, one daughter and two sons. Laria, the daughter and eldest, is born later that year.

 **14 AU/2660 CC:** The new designs of Imperial Warships and Mobile Suits enter full scale production. While the Navy lauds its new ships as the most important step forward since the foundation of the branch, as even the CDF versions of the designs are four times more effective than the old design equivalents. It is the Mobile suits that took the greatest leap forward.

The Geara Zulu II family is a huge leap forward, much like the new ships, formerly theoretical devices and improvements are jammed into the bulkier, and much heavier armored, frame of the new MS types. For example, the generator has been replaced with a much smaller, but absurdly more potent generator, taking advantage of the pocket dimension the Quantum Lathes get their resources from to make a power plant equal in potency to that on an older capital ship. This new MS line includes: the Geara Zulu II, Zee Zulu II, Geara Gouf, Geara Dom, and Geara Gelgoog.

Imperial Intelligence contacts two officers, Lieutenants Zaeed Massani and Vido Santiago, and gives them an offer to control a mercenary band called The Blue Suns as a front for I.I. and a way for the Imperium to wage proxy wars in Citadel and Terminus space. The two accept, and set about organizing their force using old tech, albeit modified to prevent unauthorized access to the tech.

Ashley Williams, now five years old, meets Michael Shepard and Tali Zorah, five years old, in a park in Shanxi's capital's "military" district. They become fast friends.

Kaiden Alenko, a half Imperial half UNSC, is found to have biotic abilities. This is hypnotized to be due to his mother being on Shanxi when the Turians invaded. The excess element zero from the destroyed warships must have affected Alenko's development. He and several others with biotic abilities are gathered together and an Asari instructor is hired to train them, thus is born the Empire's first forays into biotics.

 **15 AU/ 2661 CC:** Several Marine and CDF tanker officers present a competitor to the Leo I. Called the Tiger II, it is slower than the Leo I D, the improved variant of the 1 developed after the Geara Zulu IIs, by a good amount, but its armor and defensesare greater by a large amount. After much debate, the Tiger II is accepted as the standard Marine and CDF MBT, albeit the CDF one is less well equipped than the Marine one…Mostly due to politics.

 **16 AU/2662 CC:** Blue Suns start to aggressively expand into the merc market in the Citadel. Their services are soon in high demand, and eager recruits from around non-Imperial space flock to Blue Sun recruiting stations. The training these new bloods go through is tougher than every Citadel Military forces basic training, with only spec force branches producing tougher soldiers.

However, behind the scenes Vigo begins subverting other merc bands through a mix of force, black mail, and favors owed the Suns. These merc groups soon find themselves subcontracted by the Blue Suns to gather information and supplies for the Suns.

Several attempts are made to curtail the growth and power of the Blue Suns, including new laws to restrict the number of combat forces a pmc/mercenary group can have under their employment. But these are not too effective, as the Suns can just claim that the majority of their group is support personnel, and that they just receive the same training so they can defend themselves effectively.

Saren is recruited into the Specters, where he rapidly rises to prominence within the organization due to his ruthlessness and competence.

 **17 AU/2663 CC:** The Citadel council approves an Imperial embassy; the first Imperial Ambassador is a lower ranking Farseer, Balerion. He soon proved to be a headache for the Councilors, constantly challenging the status quo, and provoking the Batarians.

Urdnot Wrex works a job alongside Blue Suns on a job on Omega, Aria T'lok hired them to clear out a group of Vorcha. There are ten times the number reported, but the mission is successful. In the back of his mind, Wrex begins planning to unite the Krogan people with Blue Sun, but preferably Imperial, support to ensure the Citadel doesn't interfere.

 **6.17 AU/6.2663 CC:** The Imperium begins "The Great Purge." Five Navy Squadrons launch into "Terminus" systems run by pirates and purge fifty separate bands. This brief and violent operation showed the modernized power of the Imperium for the first time, as well as gained the approval of every power in the Citadel Alliance…Except for the Batarians, who had used those pirates to weaken the other powers for a potential assault as well as just general slaving.

As of this point, while neither nation would announce it to the galaxy at large, the Imperium and the Batarian Hegemony were in a state of cold war.

 **18 AU/2664 CC – 22 AU/2668 CC:** Citadel and Imperial forces conduct several joint exercises, these are designed to "improve relations" but in reality they are a way for the Citadel to try and get a closer look at the Imperial War Machine outside of an actual combat scenario. They learn much, and yet, they don't learn anything at all about how the Imperial tech works. A Salarian scientist, Professor Jornart Cadrilo, assigned to the expedition commits suicide over the sheer impossibility of some of the things he saw during one of the exercises.

Several Imperial companies set up shop in Turian and Asari space, selling improved Ezero based tech, but nothing that would make their users a legitimate threat. These corporations become fabulously wealthy, chief amongst them are Aquila Industries, which sells armor and weapons, and Asclepius Medical, the creators of Medigel (a toned down version of the medicine used in the Imperium).

Michael Shepard, Tali Zorah, and Ashely Williams start the standard basic training all Imperial citizens receive. Shepard turns out to be an effective squad leader and a perfect "shock trooper," aggressive and good with nearly every weapon he tested with; Tali is the best hacker in the year group (a class of over a thousand), and an excellent shot with a carbine version of the M-8 general purpose weapon; Ashely turns out to be highly aggressive, which would be perfect for an assault trooper, but her mid-range marksmanship is also rather high. ODST and Stormtrooper commanders overseeing the training ear mark them for potential recruitment.

In a further display of the better political situation, dignitaries from the Citadel, as well as any veterans who wished, are allowed onto Shanxi on the anniversary of the battle. The televised event is the first time Imperial music is heard in Citadel Space. The piece in question was Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture, and the galaxy at large fell in love with the piece...although for different reasons. For example, the Asari loved the overall composition and the sounds of the instruments; while the Turians adored it for the militaristic feel to the piece, and the usage of real cannons.

Of course this wasn't fully accepted by the denizens of the Imperium, while the Citadel alliance was no threat to the Imperium the principle remained that xenos, outsiders, were allowed on one of their worlds. One upon which Imperial blood was spilled to keep it in Imperial hands…it was a sacrilege in the eyes of the puritans.

Kaiden Alenko, now sixteen and with his biotics training complete, joins the Imperial Marine Corps; due to his skills, upon leaving boot camp he is granted the rank of sergeant. He serves with distinction on the eastern front, earning several minor medals and a promotion to gunnery sergeant.

Saren, now one of the Council's top fixit men, starts training Nihlus Kyrik, the younger brother of Andronicus, as a Specter.

 **6.22 AU/ 6.2668 CC:** The Blue Suns start waging a war against the slavers and pirates the Hegemony funds and uses but keeps away from Imperial patrolled areas.

This proxy war sees Batarian Death Squads disguised as pirates fighting against Imperial forces for the first time. It is a valuable learning experience for both the Hegemony and the Imperium.

 **23 AU/2669 CC:** The Imperium takes a system recently taken from Pirates, and turns it into a mercantile and tourist oriented planet for Citadel Alliance inhabitants to visit. The system was "lightly" defended by four squadrons of drone frigates, and four "small" battle stations (each a 25 KM in diameter sphere). The system had no official designation before the Imperium set the world up for trade and tourism, but afterwards it was named Arcadia.

The taking of this system is the final straw, the Batarians begin preparing a full assault on the system…But they know they can't take it down right now.

I.I. catches wind of the Batarian plan, and gets the blessings of the Emperor to turn Arcadia into a casus belli against the Batarian Hegemony. As such I.I. begins preparations for "helping" the Batarian assault.

Shepard, Williams, and Tali join the ODST. The training is intense, as they were augmented before joining the ODST Corps with standard military augments, marches go on for forty miles at a bare minimum, PT lasts for hours on end…perfect accuracy is the only acceptable type of shooting….ect. But once they finish training they are more than capable of holding their own against any threat in the known galaxy.

Imperial music and art begins to trickle out of the Empire.

 **6.24 AU/6.2669 CC:** I.I. finds the perfect fall guy for the assault, a Batarian slaver by the name of Balak. The man had a nasty reputation, and it was an open secret he was bankrolled by the Batarian state. As such once the assault began, it would be all too easy to hack into his personal files and "retrieve" all the information needed to have the Citadel stay out of the fight.

Nihlus finishes his training under Saren, as a celebration the two investigates a strange derelict. After a few minutes Saren's arm starts acting up, so they leave. The derelict is nowhere to be found when extra Citadel forces appear to investigate in greater detail.

Garus and his sister join C-sec. During these early years in their service they are approached by Saren to keep an eye on his daughter, who is studying on the Citadel. The two agree, after all it doesn't do to turn down a specter without good reason.

Michael, Ashley, and Tali complete their training in the ODST and are assigned to units out in the Eastern part of the Empire. There they gain combat experience fighting pirates and slavers.

Liara moves back to studying Protheans after exhausting every avenue of exploration of the ruined Sangheilli colony.

Benezia T'Soni comes down with a mysterious illness that lasts a day, no negative after effects are reported by her physician.

In another move forward diplomatically, the first of several Human Specter candidates is put forward, but the veteran Imperial Stormtrooper proves unable to work effectively with non-Imperials during his test phase. He is subsequently denied Specter status.

 **24 AU/2670 CC:** Shepard elects to take cross training in the Stormtrooper Corps. Because of passing ODST training, he is put through much tougher conditions than the other recruits, both out of service rivalry and to push the man to his limits.

Garrus is promoted to detective, while Acria hits sergeant. They had hit it off rather well with Laria Arterius, and when off duty the three can usually be found together.

Ashley Williams is promoted to Gunnery Chief in the 222nd ODST regiment due to actions during a raid on a slaver base that results in the rescue of over two hundred members of various Citadel Races.

Tali takes a leave of absence from her unit to perform her "Pilgrimage," a Quarian tradition largely abandoned in this time of plenty…She wanted to connect with the traditions of her people pre Imperium.

 **6.24 AU/ 6.2670 CC:** The Batarian plans to attack Arcadia are in their final stages, soon they will attack the planet and show that not even the Imperium can truly stop the Hegemony.

Upon completing his Stormtrooper training, Shepard heads to Arcadia for some RR…A day before the Batarian assault is scheduled to begin.

 **Next time: The Lion of Arcadia**

Codex: Imperial Modernization: While strange to outside observers, the Imperial Modernization of 14 AU/2656 was well justified. Cybernetic Mega Nids, and other monstrosities have started to appear on the Western Edge of the Imperium. As the threats evolved, even the current tech had been having trouble keeping up, so an evolution across the board was needed.

Everything from the standard service weapons to the largest capital ships was upgraded or superseded. For example, the old M5 family of weapons was superseded by the M7 family. The M7 is a modular design able to be configured in any way from a pistol to an hmg or a sniper rifle, it is a highly effective weapon. Similarly the Gladius pattern bolter was upgraded to the Hispania pattern bolter, featuring larger bolt rounds and higher damage potential over all.

Codex: Summery of the Imperial Diplomatic Relations with the wider Galaxy: The Imperium's diplomatic relations with the galaxy is varied depending on the race.

They have cordial relations with the Asari, as the mono-gendered xenos have no real reason to attack or hinder the Imperium. The sole point of contention, if you could call it that, is the desires of many maiden Asari to visit Imperial worlds, and the Imperium at large's desire to keep tourism under control for now.

The Salarians are largely neutral towards the Imperium, though they are envious of their technology…And fearful of what they might do to the Genophage if given a reason to react.

Surprisingly enough the Turians and the Imperium get along the best of all Citadel races. As their warrior culture respects and admires the Imperium, while they mourn their dead, their culture ground the possibility of death in the line of duty into their psyche, so there are no grudges on the Turian side.

The Volus are in something of a trade war vs the various Imperial corporations that have started to muscle in on their territory by providing superior products for cheaper prices. Though that competitiveness has not spilled out beyond commerce, as they respect the Empire's might too much to do anything…Besides it's all in good fun to the larger merchant houses of the Volus Protectorate.

To the Elcor the Imperium is a worthwhile trade partner, and a valued friend for their actions against pirate groups who had been ambushing their trade. Their economy had been in a slump before the Imperium came on the scene, but now with the dramatic drop in pirates they are starting to flourish.

The Hanar DESPISE the Imperium for "shunning the gifts of the Enkindlers." They take great delight in hindering Imperial efforts in any way they can, while the Imperium finds them amusing little buggers. A few have contemplated making live action adult movies with Hanar, but discarded those ideas soon after and instead used members of the Engineers instead for those niche films.

The Drell have no real opinion of their own as a whole, as they are little better than slaves to the Hanar.

The warlords of the Terminus are fearful of the Imperium, every day they wake and don't see an Imperial Navy squadron over their world is one they give thanks to their deity for.

Lastly the Batarians are outright in a state of conflict with the Imperium, though currently that is through proxies, such as the slavers and pirates of the Hegemony and the Blue Suns of the Imperium. Though open conflict between these two is inevitable.

Codex: Imperial Intelligence Dossier: Balak:

From the desk of "Keeper," head of Section 10 of the OMI

Balak is a rather interesting character for a pirate. Born to a high class family, Balak learned the art of breaking slaves from his maternal grandfather, a former master of the Camalaian slave markets. He is fond of psychological torture mixed liberally with physical abuse. He often brags about the time he broke an Asari Matriarch and turned her into his crew's pleasure slave, Agent Cipher 9 has managed to confirm that this is not idle boasting.

On the battlefield Balak favors a Batarian State Arms "Ripper" assault rifle, a vicious weapon capable of firing slugs able to penetrate a Krogan Warlord's battle plate as well as fire "non-lethal" rounds for when he wants to capture someone alive. His armor is a custom piece of work, it's much bulkier than most other suits of armor produced outside of the Imperium, and qualifies and civilian grade power armor in our systems.

When he is cornered, Balak is likely to try and take hostages to negotiate his escape. When negotiation is not possible he will kill every hostage or slave he has captured just to spite his foe.

Despite all this Balak is a smart being, and if not for our manipulating events he may never have gone along with the plan to attack Arcadia. He may escape the trap if we do not have the proper counter measures in play, thankfully Operative Slicer 30 has already inserted a worm into the Batarians ships, which will allow us to stop the Batarians from fleeing the system once the Navy arrives.

If all goes according to plan, the Emperor will have his Casus Beli with the Batarians, and the suffering of our cousins will be avenged.

Codex: Oddities developing among the Mega Nids: As of the latest waves, the Mega Nids are appearing in even larger numbers, this is not unforeseen…But what was unforeseen was the mechanical augmentations some of them sport.

They are crude looking things. Jagged blades of titanium, heavy guns firing bio-plasma at alarming rates, armor attachments made of ceramite…ect.

These are far more complex than anything the primitive hive mind of these creatures should be capable of. The evidence is pointing more and more at these Mega Nids being sent against us by some unknown power.

Review please and thank you


	9. The Lion of Arcadia

AN: You know what time it is, time for WAR! But first your reviews… "Captain Titus Invictus," if I do give Humanity a Council Seat outright, it's not for a long time if at all. Leaning towards multi, as Imperial augmentations increase THAT kind of stamina and drive…Primarchs are a distinct possibility…And no, that is obsolete now, but it was a SECTOR flagship. "Imoneoldfart," they might, though who's to say the Imperial AI haven't already penetrated everything already? "MEleeeSmasher," and everyone else asking about the Citadel Council considering an Imperial Spectre, they really have nothing else to offer besides influence to keep from getting curbstomped…And short of a Council Seat, a Spectre is A LOT of influence for a non-Citadel member. Not so much warn as react negatively to what the Reaper was doing…though what that was is a secret for now, it's not Indoctrination though. "ArcChaser," as I said in the PM, I forgot to mention them on the timeline…They are cautiously trading with the Imperium and each other, though they don't trust each other at all. Also, one last thing of note, this is where the story starts to earn its M rating so keep that in mind. Anyways, time for the chapter.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **The Lion of Arcadia**

 **Sand Pebbles Resort, Arcadia: Day of the Batarian Assault**

Michael Shepard rose shortly before sun up; a combination of his internal clock still set to the schedule he was on in Stormtrooper training, and the augments cutting his need for sleep down to a mere four hours. As he got ready for his day, the blond thought about the planet he was on.

Arcadia had been a barren ice world before the Imperium seized it. Now it was a carbon copy of Earth, minus the city locations…and the fact that unlike the home world, Arcadia was a tourist trap for Citadel citizens. A good amount of whom never left, in fact the customs agent he talked to before going planet side was an Asari who once worked for C-Sec.

After showering and shaving the beginnings of a beard, he switched on the news as he ordered room service. Not much had changed overnight in the galactic scene, a few minor incidents had happened though. Chief among them was that the Batarians were apparently massing their fleets, there was specialization over what the target was; most agreed that they were going to intervene on the side of the pirates against the Blue Suns.

Another thing of note was the Tsonis had come to Arcadia for a mini vacation. He had seen them in the space port from a distance…surrounded by a small cadre of commandos. It was a little amusing to him to watch them try and get the marshal to clear them to land, what with them being armed even if they weren't that powerful. He idly wondered if they had been allowed to keep their guns.

A knocking at the door alerted him to his room service having arrived. After paying for his meal, he sat down to a breakfast of three sunny side up eggs, twelve slices of bacon, two oranges, four slices of French toast, and a large glass of juice.

However, just as he finished his breakfast, the emergency alert system activated: **"Warning, warning! A pirate fleet of approximately one thousand ships has just arrived in system. The defensive stations are down due to maintenance, all tourists and inhabitants are to report to bunkers and other safe locations near them. Any military personnel present are to join the CDF attempts to hold the attackers at bay! This is not a drill! Repeat, this is NOT a drill!"**

Cursing to himself, Shepard quickly used his personal quantum lathe to create his armor and weapon. The armor he stepped into was a virtually featureless combination of blocks and angles, looking more like a statue than an actual suit of armor; however once inside the armor the micro cameras activated, giving him a full view of his surroundings along with his HUD. The gun he created was the standard M7 in LMG mode; the M7 looked very similar to the old rifles used by the Imperium, it was linked to the HUD of the armor, allowing the user to rely on the inbuilt targeting systems, though in a pinch the gun could be used with iron sights (picture the stoner 63 family for what the M7 looks like).

Tapping into the CDF communications he reported in, his voice calm and clear: "This is Sergeant Shepard, eighty second ODST regiment; I'm at the Sand Pebbles resort. Where do you need me?"

After a second a gruff voice responded: **"Hold the resort Shepard, we don't have enough manpower to protect all the areas of the planet. We need you to lock down the area, we will be redirecting all tourists outside the main city to your area. You are authorized to take any action need to your position. Hold until relieved sergeant. Hold until relieved."**

Acknowledging his orders, Michael quickly made a pair of drone engineers to fortify the resort in every direction except one. The main entrance had to be kept open for the civvies to enter, so that is where he would make his stand.

 **In Orbit: Bridge of the Eyes of Harkon**

Balak's eyes narrowed as he watched two of the defending warships leave their berths as the rest exploded under the barrage of the massive armada the Hegemony had gathered for this mission. The two defensive stations had been taken out swiftly by the fleet, as they were down for maintenance as their informant had told them.

Issuing a quick order, the fleet focused fire on one of the "frigates" at a time. While it still took three minutes to down one of the frigates, and an additional five to down the other, it took less time than it would have if the firepower was split. Still though, they lost three hundred ships under a barrage of weapon fire…granted they were mostly frigates and destroyers, but it was still a loss of men and materials that would force them to continue. As if they withdrew now with nothing to show for it, it would mean all their heads.

Grunting in annoyance, the batarian barked: "Slave! Relieve my tension!" At his barked command a light blue skinned Asari maiden crawled to him on her hands and knees, naked as the day she was born. The maiden was in her fifties, around a decade older than the veteran slaver, but still illegal in Citadel space on her age alone, never mind the slavery bit.

As she worked his cock free, and Balak had always prided himself on his size, the slaver ordered the ground forces to commence their assault. While the Asari was working the shaft and balls, he monitored the situation; when he reached his climax, he would lead his elite guard against a point of resistance of his choice…probably the heaviest unless something else suggested itself as a better target.

This was not out of concern for his fellow pirates, but rather because they were the best equipped, and anywhere with that level of resistance would have the best loot or most slaves. He grunted as the slave started to suck on the tip. For now though, he was content to wait, and to use his Asari slave…He didn't plan on joining the fight until he had painted her face white.

 **Arcadia's surface:**

Liara T'soni was running. She had been at the beach with her mother and their cadre of commandos when the warning came in. They had assumed it would be easy to get to the parking lot and use their rented hover cars to get to a safe location. But the slavers had put a stop to that plan when a cruiser's round leveled the lot and all the vehicles in it.

A police officer had directed them north, towards the Sand Pebbles resort. Minutes later slaver ships had deployed their cargo of ruthless criminals and mercenaries. Miralia, one of the commandos who had served her mother faithfully since Liara was a child, had been cut down in the opening salvo. Her blood sprayed across the scientist's face and swimsuit clad form.

As she had fled the strings on her bikini had been severed, either by purpose or accident; similar had happened to other tourists, leaving a mass of partially to fully nude panicked civilians fleeing to the resort. Just as the mass of civilian crossed onto the boundaries of the resort, a round severed the Asari's tendon, causing her to stumble.

Thankfully her mother, who was in a similar state of undress, caught her before she fell. The two hobbled along, and manage to make it to the main road, something was odd though. The resort was surrounded by a massive curtain wall, except for at the main entrance, where there was a gap in which stood one armored figure.

They fled towards him, even as more of them were cut down or captured by the slavers chasing them. The crowd, with one thought, split evenly to both sides of the road; this gave the soldier the opportunity to fire on the slavers. Angry scarlet beams of energy scythed through the attackers, killing dozens with each burst.

Within seconds the pursuing band, which had numbered over two hundreds, was reduced to a mere dozen. Those few survivors fled in terror. When the fleeing civilians came level with the soldier, Liara finally got a good up close look at the armor he wore. Much like the rest of the Citadel, she was familiar with the standard "Enforcer Mk VII" the Imperial Marines wear, and this bore a similarity to it…In so much as a Turian Praetorian tank resembles a King Tiger.

This armor looked much more advanced and better defended than the normal Marine plate…But his weapon was easily recognizable as a M7 in the LMG configuration. Before she could inspect him more, the crowd made it into the resort where the staff tended to their wounds and gave them clothes. For better or worse, they were now stuck in the resort.

 **The gap in the Sand Pebbles new wall: Shepard**

The ODST Sergeant exhaled a breath as he constructed several stealth UAVs, tiny drone cameras with optic camouflage and radar absorbing materials. The first wave had been repelled easily. But with the Batarians holding orbital supremacy, he would need eyes in the sky to the spot the attacking groups.

Normally building a gate would be a VERY wise idea, but not for the strategy he had in mind. The walls themselves were heavily fortified with auto turrets, limiting the Batarians to approaching from the main road. With turrets and a heavy gate, the Batarians would be held at bay and probably convinced to attack elsewhere.

However, with the sheer number of attackers, reducing the amount of viable targets would merely result in them concentrating all their forces on the sole city. But, if he left an obvious weakness, especially with only one defender… he would suck in a disproportionate number of slavers, alleviating the pressure on the CDF force, which barely numbered five hundred.

This then was his plan, tie up as many enemy combatants as possible by presenting as tempting a target as possible. Another reason for this plan was that an Imperial Intelligence group, code name Cerberus, had tested the armor he was wearing in Batarian weaponry; it could stand up to frigate grade weapons firing nonstop for an hour before experiencing any difficulty…Which was perfect, as that was the largest caliber the Batarians could bring to bear without losing potential slaves.

A warning beep from one of the UAVs he deployed notified him of the approach of the next slaver group. A quick report flashed up on their numbers and equipment. Roughly two hundred, armed with cheap gear, and escorted by a pair of obsolete Turian Talon tanks, probably purchased off the black market.

Shepard contemplated building a few additional defenses, either static or attack drones, or arming some of the tourists to help as he waited; but in the end he decided against it for the same reason he left out the normal gate, to present a more welcoming target. Aiming his LMG in the direction the pirates would come from, he waited for them to come out of the woods.

He didn't have to wait long. Within a minute the next wave had appeared, already firing on him. The rounds fired by this band bounced off his shielding, creating a sound almost like rain falling in a forest. Michael took a second to let the sound relax him, before he returned fire.

His LMG was in the standard laser mode, as such his rounds didn't trigger the shields of the attackers…and merely scythed through their armor. The first burst gutted one of the old tanks, detonating its Ezero core; the resulting explosion instantly killed the ten closest slavers, consuming them in the blast…those a little further away were thrown around like rag dolls, their bodies broken by the concussive blast.

The next burst destroyed the second "tank," resulting in similar carnage. That was the problem with the old Talons, Shepard reflected as he proceeded to leisurely pick off targets with his rifle, they were relatively powerful for a Citadel tank…but that power came at the cost of a highly volatile power core, which led to its inevitable retirement by the Turians, as it resulted in unacceptably high casualties amongst the infantry support.

As the lone survivor tried to flee, and Shepard put a single round through his back, the radio channel Arcadia CDF command used came to life: **"I've got good news and bad news people. The good news is Highcom knows our situation, so we can expect a relief force in the future. Unfortunately they couldn't give me a time table for that, as the latest push on the Western periphery is occurring simultaneously. Reports of fully cyberized Mega Nids are streaming in. But Lord Castellean Creed has promised that as soon as forces are available we will be relieved. But for now our enemy out numbers us at least ten thousand to one, each of you must be an army in your own right! For the Imperium, we will hold the line and bring DEATH to the invaders!"**

As the micro speech wound down, the next wave, double the size of the last, exited the woods over two kilometers away. Shepard opened fire immediately, putting hundreds of rounds down range and shredding the column. He would hold the line.

 **Shaxi:**

Ashly Williams was on leave, visiting her family, when the news first broke. Her first reaction was denial, there was no way the Batarians would be stupid enough to attack an Imperial world. And there was even less of a chance of them happening to strike when automated maintenance was underway. But most of all there was no chance in hell of her best friend being on the world they attacked.

But as the reports became more solid, and supported the initial one, her denial turned to disbelief…then shock…and finally ANGER. She was halfway to calling the local garrison to cancel her leave and get a transport to Arcadia when her family talked her into staying. After all, Shepard had gone through additional training and had better equipment; it would take more than pirates to kill him in the time it would take for the relief force to arrive.

Even so, she kept an ear on the news, waiting to know when it would be safe to contact Shepard, and promising vengeance against the Batarians for their stupidity in attacking an Imperial world.

 **Citadel Station: Four hours into the assault**

The Citadel was in an uproar, they had finally found out where the Batarian pirate fleets had disappeared to. The Council was ill pleased with this, and had summoned the Batarian envoy, and the Imperial ambassador to meet about this. The Imperial ambassador had arrived quickly, and was keeping an eye on the situation on Arcadia; but the Batarian one was late.

When he finally arrived, the envoy swaggered into the meeting chamber like he owned the place. He probably had demands or chips that he thought he could use to get the upper hand for the Hegemony; especially as none of the ships were officially part of their navy.

The incoming Turian Councilor, Spartus, was the first to speak, cutting off whatever Drothan, the envoy, was going to say: "When the Council summons you, Envoy, you are expected to be punctual. Anything less is not only gross disrespect on your part, but reflects badly on your people. So what's the excuse this time?"

The Batarian fumed at Spartus' tone, but really couldn't do anything about it. So he delivered the state approved line: "Honored Councilors, the Batarian Hegemony has nothing to do with the actions of pirates and slavers as you well know. We would be happy to work with the Imperials to retrieve their people…for a small fee."

Before the Councilors could step in, Balerion's successor, a UNSC Human by the name of Donal Udina, spoke: "We have a counter offer. The Batarian Hegemony will return all slaves to their respective races, disband their pirate fleets, and abolish slavery. In return the Imperium will modernize your industries to the point where you do not need slaves any more. If you refuse however, we will retaliate."

The Batarian snapped: "They aren't connected to my government, so any retaliation against us for us is unjustified." It was an old line, one Tevos and the Galactic community at large had always been stymied by…Not so the Imperials.

Udina's cold voice countered the argument: "Whether or not they are affiliated, the fact that they have top of the line technology from your nation implies either flat out supports them, or that your military is so grossly incompetent as to allow this tech to fall into the hands of criminals. Either way our ultimatum stands. You have two hours to get your government's reply."

Drothian glared in anger as he turned and left to make the call to his government. Everyone already knew the Batarians would never give in to those demands, even if it helped them in the long run. Their arrogance and hatred for all things not Batarian would never allow it. This was just a formality really, reinforcing the fact that the Imperium had a cassus beli against the Batarians, and even came off as merciful by giving them the option to handle the slavery problem themselves.

 **Citadel: Rae's Bar:**

Tali took a sip of her beer in contemplation. She wasn't surprised at all by the actions of the Batarians, merely that they had gotten lucky enough to hit Arcadia at just the right time when the automated defenses were down.

She took another sip as a flash of amusement crossed her mind. If she had lived in the fleet till her teens, she would have distrusted the automated systems the Imperium used intensely; the young Quarian considered herself lucky she wasn't. Her people were in a time of prosperity unseen since the Morning War, and safer even then when the Geth were under their control.

Even so, she didn't have to like that her friend was in combat on Arcadia, and there was nothing she could do to help. By the time she arrived, the battle would already be over. Tali blamed the slowness of the Citadel News Network in transmitting the news about the battle.

Still, everything was going well it seemed. Already the slavers had lost over three million combatants, and the Navy hadn't even shown up yet; and with the ultimatum from the Empire, the Hegemony's day was going to go from bad to worse.

 **Arcadia: Slaver Landing Zone Four, six miles away from Sand Pebble Resort**

Balak scowled as he read the reports. For over four hours, a single Imperial had prevented them from seizing the captives there. That ended now. The pirate lord had gathered his Elites, one thousand strong and clad in the closest equivalent to Imperial Power Armor the Hegemony had produced. They were to be supported by two squadrons of Pillar Heavy tanks, one of Vengeance Gunships, and one of the brand new Fist Mobile Suits.

None of this was individually a match for an Imperial version, but it would give them a fighting chance against the actual soldier stationed there. Briefly Balak considered turning his Elites on the city and the PDF, but in the end he reasoned that there must be some hvts in the resort to warrant a soldier of that caliber being stationed there.

As such he issued the order: "Advance, kill that soldier and claim the slaves inside."

 **Shepard:**

For the past four hours he had destroyed attack after attack; if his kill tracker on his hud was accurate, he had single handedly put down forty thousand slavers and mercs, not to mention all the "heavy" equipment such as tanks. He had made a nuisance of himself, as the mass piles of bodies proved. The smell of roasted flesh permeated the air, making Shepard extremely thankful his suit filtered out smell along with everything else.

He had been keeping an ear on the battle in the city. The CDF was still being pushed hard, they had lost the outer parts of the capital city of Neo Athens, but now that they were in the inner parts the concentration of forces had increased to the point the Batarians couldn't make any more progress. It was a pity that Trooper war droids weren't authorized for the CDF in Eastern part of the Empire yet; they would have annihilated the attackers by now if they were, but the traditionalists fought against such a move on the relatively quiet Eastern frontier tooth and nail.

A warning beep warned him of a new formation approaching. An eyebrow raised as he looked at the composition, the fact that Mobile Suits were present, especially as the Batarian military didn't even have several divisions of them yet, only proved that this operation was cleared by the Batarian state. But even that wouldn't really be enough.

Calmly he switched to sniper mode, and took aim. Imperial Intelligence had identified the major weakness with the Fist class as soon as it was introduced. It was built for intimidation, and sheer overwhelming firepower. As such, its generator was extremely powerful, almost matching a frigate, but unstable…And lacked proper armor.

A single low powered shot exited the barrel of the rifle, and speared the leading MS through its cockpit. The laser round flash fried the pilot, and set off the generator. The explosion was rather satisfying, creating a small blue mushroom cloud from the Ezero, but it didn't really affect the attackers. Their armor was specifically designed to counter explosions from Ezero cores.

But that was fine, his weapon and training would emerge triumphant. By the time the Batarians started firing on him, he had destroyed half the Fists and Pillars, and shot down the entire gunship unit. Their fire was accurate, but nothing really to worry about too much; only the Pillars or the Fists could really put a dent in his defenses at that range.

It was just a matter of aim and shoot, each pull of the trigger destroyed a vehicle, or killed multiple slaver infantry. That was when he finally caught sight of the sigils on their armor, they were the "Elites" of Balak's crew. These men, and indeed a few women, were the most ruthless and well equipped pirates in the galaxy; with good reason, Imperial Intelligence had already determined that the majority were either Death Squad members, or recruits.

That just made eliminating them all the more important. After he picked off the last MS, spearing it with a crimson beam of light, he rapidly transitioned his weapon back to LMG mod. The slavers were getting closer, with a wry smirk he switched to volkite rounds. The quasi power armor worn by the slavers was exceptional for Ezero based tech, but it wasn't designed to stop pure heat weapons.

Slavers cooked alive in their armor, screaming in pure mind destroying agony as their bodies melted off of bone, or exploded in the armor depending on their race. It was grisly and would have broken the morale of any of the earlier forces, but these were fanatics…They believed themselves invincible, and believed totally in their superiority over other races, they would never withdraw.

That suited Michael just fine. His weapon reaped a bloody toll on the attackers, however a dozen or so managed to within fifty meters of his position. Rather than continuing to fire, he discarded his LMG, and created a witch blade, modeled after an Imperial Fist power sword. The blade however was fast and light despite its size, and easily sliced through the slavers that charged him.

Each swipe claimed a life, spraying the area with the blood of his victims, and turned his armor from gun metal grey to red. It was a massacre, nothing stopped his blade, and soon all that was left was him and Balak. The slaver had emptied multiple clips into him, as had the other attackers, all for nothing though as his shield had absorbed it all.

A decision was presented to him through this. Either kill the Batarian, or take him prisoner, minus his arms. In the end he chose the latter, and with two quick swipes gave the slaver a "flesh wound." After then knocking the bastard out, he proceeded to apply basic first aid, it wouldn't do for the probably leader of this attack to die before Imperial Intelligence got their hands on him.

 **Inside the Resort:  
** Liara shakily watched as the most dangerous Pirate band the Citadel faced was slaughtered by one Imperial soldier. The brutality was horrifying, but at the same time that was vastly tempered by what she knew would be their fate if the soldier hadn't stopped the slavers. She had met several cousins who had been rescued or manage to escape after stints in captivity, and they were always changed; it was as if most of the fire had gone out of them, and they were just living day to day out of necessity, rather than enjoying life.

She had thought some unkind things about the Imperium before, what with their hording of tech and secretism, but this had more than proved them right. If they had shared their tech, it is very likely the Batarians would have overrun the planet with ease.

Shaking her head as her mother put a hand on her shoulder, Liara spoke: "We were wrong mother. The Imperium is much more dangerous than your friends in the STG ever dreamed. And now the Batarians have kicked over a vespoid nest."

Benezia nodded, "You are correct little wing, though when the Imperium retaliates the Batarians will face them alone. Even with the possibility of the Imperium gaining even more influence in our culture and politics, it is a preferable scenario to the Batarians dragging the galaxy into a war we cannot win. The council would sooner leave them to drown then damn the rest of the races to a total war."

Liara nodded, in her opinion any retaliation by the Imperium was long overdue. She hoped the Imperials didn't leave a single stone on another by the time they finished with the Batarians. (if you think Liara is out of character, remember she gets quite vicious during the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC)

 **Orbit:**

Finally, after over four hours, the Imperial Navy relief force arrived. Ten warships, none under fifteen kilometers long, appeared out of the darkness of space, their wedge shapes striking fear into the hearts of the slavers. In mere moments a third of the slaver fleet had been vaporized under a barrage of high intensity lasers.

Another third tried to flee to the planet, only to be shot out of the skies by hidden anti-orbital guns. Those guns then proceeded to destroy any remnants of those ships, to prevent any damage from bing done to the planet by their descent.

The last third tried to leave…emphasis on tried. The worm I.I. planted in their systems activated at that point, locking their controls, allowing boarding actions. Something the avenging navy ships did by launching tens of thousands of boarding pods, each loaded to capacity with trooper war droids.

One of the ships boarded by the merciless mechs was the Eyes of Harkon. And much like on every other ship they boarded, they carried out a slaughter. Not a single slaver was left alive after this attack, though unlike the other ships they disassembled, Balak's flagship was left alone. As I.I. needed the ship to put the final nail in the op, even though the Batarians had already dug their own nation's grave.

Beyond that, Trooper pods disgorged on the planet to finish securing it, as well as take Balak into custody for the I.I. agent in the fleet. Within ten minutes, Arcadia was Batarian free, and under Imperial dominance again. As a final cherry on top, Western Front grade defenses were being installed throughout the Empire, as this assault finally gave the reformers the last bit of clout needed to remove all restrictions on the arsenal of the CDF.

 **Citadel: Two hours later**

The Batarian answer to the Imperial ultimatum was clear the moment their envoy reentered the council chamber with his head held high and full of smug superiority. Holding up a finger, Balerion opened a com channel to the Imperial Palace, and informed the Emperor of this expected outcome.

Within seconds of Balerion's call, every electronic device stopped their regular broadcast, and piped the Emperor through. For the first time in the brief history of Imperial Citadel relations, the inhabitants of the Citadel Alliance saw the master of the Imperium. It was awe inspiring, like seeing one of the great heroes from mythology made manifest.

When the Emperor spoke, his voice was full of power: **"People of the Citadel, hear me. Six hours ago, our trading colony of Arcadia was attacked by a massive slaver fleet. Our forces were hard pressed, but due to the heroism of our forces in the face of overwhelming numbers, we prevailed over our foes. I am pleased to report that not a single slave was taken by the raiders, and that not a single one of the attackers made it out of the system alive."**

" **However, this attack has pushed my patience to the limit. Two hours ago, my representatives on the Citadel issued an ultimatum to the Batarian Hegemony, the sponsors of this attack. Dismantle their slaving institution and renounce their pirate fleets. In return, we would have modernized their industry to keep them competitive."**

" **Out of pride and hubris, they refused, now the only recourse left to the Imperium is war. But any war would only lead to them taking back up slavery if we left their way of life intact. As such I declare this to be a war of cultural destruction, in as much as it is one of conquest. We will tear down the old ways, and rebuild the Hegemony into a law abiding people."**

" **To you of the Batarian Hegemony, I say this. Make whatever preparations you wish. Raise armies of slaves. Hire Mercenary specialists. Bolster your defensive installations. In the end, it will not matter. The chastisement I bring upon you shall not be stopped, or averted. As of this moment, the Imperium is now at war with the Batarian Hegemony, and its culture."**

 **Shanxi System:**

Shepard looked out the window of his troop transport. He had volunteered for the counter strike the Imperium was gathering out of a sense of duty, as well as vengeance for the forty CDF troopers who died against the slavers. The task force consisted of twenty frigates, fifteen destroyers, ten cruisers, five battle cruisers, two carriers, a fleet carrier, and a single battle barge.

This battle barge was a deep arterial red with ebon sections. It was larger than the old Corvus, and bristling with guns. Emblazned across its upper surface was the emblem of a book with an Aquila seated across Earth, and inscribed on its bow was the name: "Bearer of the Word."

The XVIIth Legion, the Imperial Heralds, were here, ready to win for the Imperium.

 **Next time: The Death of a Culture**

Codex: Non-Imperial Mobile Suits

While not nearly as powerful as Imperial MS, the governments of the Citadel Alliance and Terminus Systems have tried their best to develop their own mobile suits. A trend among the races was to make their suits look like their normal combat armor expanded to gargantuan size. None of the races MS really did the same thing; for example the Turian Talon class was built around armor and heavy firepower…while the Salarian Slink class was built with a micro stealth generator, which didn't leave room for much firepower or armor.

Another example would be the Batarian Fist. Designed to be easy to use and produce, it sacrificed a lot of "extras" to meet the production demands of the Hegemony. The Fist are highly maneuverable in space, easily outperforming nearly every other race's mobile suit, this is to allow them to out maneuver the targeting systems on most citadel style craft. They also carry a relatively heavy armament, with a gun almost as strong as that on a frigate as their main weapon and a pair of head mounted CWIS.

The present designs are one of the largest steps forward that Ezero was able to fuel…but this was the limit, if they want to advance any further, they would need new tech.

Codex: Cyber Meganids, an abomination

We have seen partially augmented meganids before, they were much more dangerous than their more common brethren. However, a new abomination has taken to the field. Made completely out of crude metal, but acting exactly like their organic counterparts, Cyber Meganids are a new force on the battlefield. Each is ten times more durable then their organic counterparts, and even the smallest can carry heavy weapons.

Imperial Intelligence is currently working on finding the source of these Cyber Meganids. But considering they have yet to even find the source of the regular Meganids, it is unlikely they will anytime soon.

Codex: Battlebarge: Bearer of the Word

A fifth generation Battlebarge, the Bearer of the Word is one of the XVII Legion, the Imperial Heralds, command vessels. At thirty kilometers in length, in outweighs the earlier iteration of the Battlebarge by a substantial amount; and can bring a lot more fire power to bear, carrying double the amount of turrets as the older class of barges. The armor on this behemoth, despite only being ten meter thick, is equivalent to one hundred meters of armor. Its power plants are multiple redundant anti-mater reactors that produce twelve times the output of the last generation power generator, this allows for an even more rapid fire rate for the turrets as well as a much higher shield rating.

Beyond that, the Bearer of the Word has several EMP weapons intended to be used in culture destruction ops; as well as numerous lathes for use in mass producing war droid support/pacification units.

Codex: Legion XVII, the Imperial Heralds

Like every other Legio bearing the number and name of a former Traitor Legion, the XVIIth Legio has a lot to prove. The scars of the long war run deep, and many Eldar and Imperials distrust their motives because of this. However they are, much like their cousins in the other Legions, loyal to the Emperor, and have yet to fail any mission given to them…but this is the first time they will be exercising their specialization, cultural destruction and rebuilding. Some privately question why this mercy is being given to the Batarians, after all it would be far more efficient to simply Exterminatus them, and be done with it. However, this decision was taken so that there would be a buffer to the south east of the Imperium until such a time as the when the Imperium can claim dominion over the entire galaxy.

Codex: Imperial exports to the Citadel

While Aquila Industries and Asclepius Medical have cornered the Citadel market in their respective industries, other Imperial Companies have started exporting video games, movies, music, food, and even clothing to the Citadel Alliance. Imperial fashion is all the rage amongst the Asari and Turians, the Asari because of how well the clothes fit their physiology withough any modification…and the Turians due to the clean cut, and militaristic feel of several of the lines.

On the movie front, the most popular series of movies to exit the Imperium is the Heresy series, with the Cain saga in a close second. The Heresy series is a grand historical drama, covering the events of the blackest days of the Galaxy, the Horus Heresy; the Emperor lent his voice as the narrator for the movies, and is rumored that he will appear further down the line. Meanwhile the Cain saga covers the life of HERO OF THE IMPERIUM Ciaphus, and has the bonus of the roles of Cain, Amberly, Jurgen, and a few other roles being played by the real life individuals.

Beyond that the "Edge of the Empire" game series of strategy games had gained a lot of traction. The premise of the games was to be an Imperial commander, and deal with threats, real or "imagined," that threatened the Imperium through whatever means necessary.

Review please and thank you


	10. The Death of a Culture

AN: We're back to it. "MElessSmasher," this is a cultural exterminatus, the other Legio are not built for that. "wolves567," the Legio have existed since the prologue. "Slim A Lou Prime," they would probably just burn everything not a slave…and the Emperor has plans. "John092," that was never a concern. "Clare Prime of Ultra," He'll show up at some point. "Captain Titus Invictus," who says he hasn't. By the end of the campaign he'll have one. Edge of the Empire is a Total Waresque series. Let's just say, very complete, and leave it at that. Anyways, let's get down to it.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **The Death of a Culture**

 **Batarian Space, Hegidor Prime: Ten minutes after the last chapter**

The Hegemony didn't listen to the Emperor's warning. This was mainly due to the fact that they had ALREADY prepared before launching the assault. While the political big wigs on Karshan might think no one would dare go to war over a simple raid, no matter how large, their military knew otherwise.

Fortified combat stations filled the space around the primary world, each armed with a cannon as powerful as a dreadnought; backed by a fleet of one hundred ships of various classes. And on the ground they had emplaced numerous anti-orbital batteries, as well as deploying over a million slave soldiers specially trained for war.

The only reason the desolate world of Hegidor had been given such a defense, was because it was the main relay into the Batarian Hegemony from the Imperium. There were more fleets held in reserve behind the lines, waiting to crush the Imperials when they finally arrived.

The Hegemony's military was fairly confidant of victory, and had even pre-recorded speeches for when the Imperium failed. Unfortunately, all their bragging and confidence would come to nothing.

Jagged tears in the fabric of reality opened up, and the Imperial task force slid out back into real space. Shock and horror filled the minds of the defenders when they caught sight of the massive warship in the lead, the massive "Bearer of the Word."

 **Hangers of the Bearer of the Word:**

The massive hangers were full of activity. Drone fighters and MS were being pumped out at an extraordinary rate, as were "pacification droids." But despite this, there was a calm mass of ten thousand Legionaries standing in formation.

In front of the Legionaries stood two figures; one in chaplain armor, and the other in the armor of a Legate. They were Chaplain Kerubiel and Legate Rogziel respectively. The Legate spoke firmly: "Brothers and sisters, as you are all aware, the Emperor has ordered us to chastise the Batarians for their attack upon the Imperium, and upon our recently reclaimed Quarian cousins."

"Today we embark on an operation not seen since the Great Crusade over ten thousand years ago; we are setting out to annihilate not a race, but a culture. The Emperor demands that no trace of Batarian culture be left once we are done." Here he paused, as pre-prepared automatons came up from the elevator behind him, and opened several crates containing seals and parchment which they handed out.

"I thought it fitting, since we are to resurrect one facet of the Crusade, to resurrect another. I call upon each of you, to join me in making an Oath of Moment." The hanger seemed suddenly devoid of all noise as that pronouncement was heard. Then, as one, the Legionaries dropped to a knee with their various melee weapons before them.

Nodding once, the Legate continued: "Do you of the Sixth and Seventh Battalions of the Imperial Heralds swear to uphold Imperial Honor in the face of the enemies of the Imperium? Do you swear to bring ruination upon the enemies of the Imperium, leaving not a single stone upon another of their old culture? Do you swear to bring honor back to the name of our Legio, and leave a campaign that will aid in wiping away the stain our forbearers left?"

As one, the ten thousand Legionaries replied: **"By this matter, and these weapons, we so swear! None shall find us wanting!"**

Rogziel smiled beneath his helm as he ordered the tenth company of both battalions to the surface to cleanse it of the slave soldiers guarding it. By the time the drop pods were loaded and launched, two minutes later, the Batarian orbital defenses had been smashed and their surface guns silenced.

As soon as the pods cleared the ship, the fleet split up into multiple pincers, their goal to overwhelm the Batarians before they could form a cohesive response. The Fleet Carrier, "Watchful Gaze," would remain behind, deploying extra ships to capitalize on momentum.

 **Planet's surface: Slave Soldier X-0894**

X-0894, a Turian born in captivity and raised from birth as a soldier of the Masters, waited along with his platoon for the inevitable assault. The defensive guns had been silenced by the invaders, and the masters' fleet was in ruins. But they, the loyal defenders of the masters, would hold their ground.

They were armed with the best weapons and armor the Hegemony could produce, Raider Power Armor and Kartak general use weapons. They had learned well from their experiences fighting the Blue Suns. The sound of objects breaking the sound barrier drew his eyes sky word. For the first time in his "service," the slave soldier felt fear.

They had all seen the reports on the Raven Guard counter attack, they knew what these pods were. While they didn't bear the livery of the Ravens, that just meant they didn't know the fighting style of their attackers. Though one thing was for sure, no matter what it was, it would be unstoppable unless they concentrated all their firepower against the armored butchers.

The commanding officer on the ground, another slave soldier, ordered a concentration of force as soon as they knew what was coming. Watching the pods for a second before following his orders, he knew the pods were dropping far from their positions. Part of him hoped that it was a mistake on their part, but a larger part he ignored through training, knew it was to allow them to gather together, rather than having to chase them down.

It took a half an hour for them to gather, a half an hour before the Legionaries moved from their drop zones. Finally though, the Legionaries advanced on the defenders. Despite being infantry, the radar clocked them at a speed of one hundred fifty kilometers per hour. Within a minute they were within firing range of the heavier ordinance.

The rounds they fired were dead on, and a ragged cheer went through the ranks as cruiser and frigate weight ordinance slammed into the targets. That jubilation ended when they realized they were still coming, their armor not even scratched. More and more fire poured in against the attackers, but still on they came those two hundred.

Then, the Legionaries _returned fire_ , their shots were dead on despite being outside small arm range. Hundreds fell every second. Bolter shells ripped the slave soldiers apart, body parts simply vanishing where the high caliber rounds impacted, leaving only bloody mists. Laser rounds burned through armor and organic materiel alike, causing flesh to melt or explode from overheating.

But the plasma rounds were both the best and worst, as they exploded on contact, and killed all those in a five meter radius from each hit instantly; those that were out of the blast range had their armor fuse to their bodies, resulting in them screaming in agony as they writhed on the ground, before dying of nerve damage.

The horrifying shooting resulted in half of the defenders being dead before the Legionaries even entered melee range. That was when the true horror began. Nothing could touch these…these…GODS made manifest. They were faster than any being had the right to be, weaving their way through in a lethal dance of death. Whatever they touched, whether it be with melee weapons, or armored body, died horribly; those cut with one of their weapons died swiftly, their life essences sprayed everywhere from brutal wounds. But those hit by the body of a Legionary died in horrific agony as their body shattered under the physical force, but before their brain was overwhelmed in pain they would die from their blood no longer circulating, as their veins exploded upon contact.

X-8094 was the last to die, curled up in a fetal position; his mind shattered by fear and horror. In the last seconds before his death, his brain grasped the truth. There was never any hope for the Hegemony to stop the Imperials, and no power in the galaxy could stand before them should they unleash their full power. His last thought, was wishing that he could share his revelation with the galaxy, before a power sword decapitated him with a single stroke.

 **Karshan: Imperial Intelligence agent "Cypher 20:"  
**

Cypher 20 was one of the Imperium's many infiltrators within the Batarian Hegemony. His age, name, gender, and race all deleted from records upon becoming a Cypher. He was currently disguised as a minor noble in the Batarian council, as he had been for the past six years. On the surface he had made "friends" in the "august" body, but in reality he hated nearly all of them.

He hated their arrogance, he hated their stupidity, he hated their looks…Anything he could find to hate, he did. In fact he only barely even tolerated the few reformers on the council, and it was only through a supreme act of will and obedience to his orders that he hadn't slaughtered them all.

Suddenly, as some worm was going on about how the Imperial counter attack would be crushed, his implant pinged. A new order, briefly reading it, a cold smile crossed his face. This coincided with the end of the councilman's talk. And Cypher 20 rose to speak.

After being acknowledged, his voice rang out: "Gentlemen, as you are aware I served on this council for six years. I would like to reveal something, before the end." Here the bombs he planted two years ago detonated, sealing the chambers.

The assassin allowed the Polymorphine he had been using to recede, revealing the form of an armored human: "I never was on your side anyway." After saying that he proceeded to leisurely cut down the members of the council, using blade and pistol; blood ran in rivers where his blade cut through concealed armor on politicians, full on armor plating of guards, and flesh; grey matter, blood, bone fragments, and other viscera stained walls where 1.00 caliber bolter slew targets.

The best part though, the assassin reflected, was that his massacre was being broadcast live across Batarian space. So they would know their civilian government was dead, leading to wide spread panic and horror…making them even easier prey for the invasion force.

Across the length and breadth of the Hegemony, similar decapatory strikes were occurring, ranging from killing certain public figures, to outright annihilation of military targets. This chaos did its job, and further eased the Imperial assault.

 **Torfan: Sergeant Shepard:**

Shepard waited in the hull of the frigate Lusitania, he had been assigned, along with two companies of ODST and Stormtroopers, to take Torfan. It was an important hub for pirate activity, as well as home to several slave processing centers, vile places where the Batarians examined the slave intake and decided what their new life would be and what center would "bring out their true selves."

The one hundred organic Imperials were to be augmented by a force of twenty thousand war droids, and if they needed more they could construct foundries to mass produce more droids as well as heavier equipment. Then the order came down, it was time to drop.

The hanger opened, revealing the burning defensive fleet, and the planet below. The ODST jumped out of the hanger, their armor proof against the void and the stresses of entering the atmosphere, their targets being the slave markets and garrisons. Meanwhile the Stormtroopers descended slightly slower in gunships, they would hit the ports on the ground. Seconds after the organics deployed, the four Imperial vessels in orbit bombarded the planet, not with weapons, but hyper accelerated drop pods full of troopers in ODST and Stormtrooper style chassis.

The pods decelerated right before the ground, and deployed their compliment of Troopers a dozen feet above ground level. This was SOP for the Special Forces of the Imperial Marine Corps, shock and awe with overwhelming firepower at the right point. Most of the forces landed and found their areas as intel had described, Shepard however found himself facing longer odds than anticipated.

His target had been a simple structure with two stories and a basement, at least according to intel. But as he opened fire on a squad that exited an elevator that scans hadn't even detected, he knew he was in for an interesting time.

After he entered the elevator, the mechanism used to suspend it ceased to function, and plummeted. When it hit the ground it pancaked around him, though his armor protected him. Checking his location, the Sergeant was surprised to see he was now two thousand feet below the surface, to get back up he would have to take the stairs and fight through who knows how many Batarians… _"Just your average Tuesday in the ODST,"_ he thought with a wry smile.

As he headed into the facility, he sent a notice to the officer in charge of this blitz that droids were needed to prevent escape from the facility. He half heard the acknowledgement as he advanced into the facility, his gun in SMG mode.

He advanced methodically, checking every room. Most of the rooms on this floor were storage with one or two deserted barracks facilities. When he got into the stairwell, he came under fire from the Batarian defenders, two squads of them. However, much like on Arcadia, the rounds disintegrated on contact with his shield.

His return fire, on the other hand, had no trouble putting down the Batarians. It was over in ten seconds. Leaving the smoldering Batarian remains in their now useless defensive position, Michael continued further into the facility.

Floor by floor, corridor by corridor, room by room, the ODST cleared the facility in his relentless advance. By the time he hit the top floor he had killed another six thousand or so Batarians, and liberated forty thousand newly "acquired" slaves.

As the mass exited the base, they were greeted by the sight of fifty wardroids and an officer in an elaborate dress uniform. This new comer was easily identified as Ciaphas Cain, he had a wry look on his face as Jergan handed him a cup of tana: "Shepard, hell of a job down there. Intel really dropped the ball here. I'm putting you on for a DSC for this, it'll go nicely with the Star of Tera the governor of Arcadia put you in for."

Shepard nodded as he watched the recently saved citadel inhabitants get on the transport: "Yes sir, though I don't think I deserve either. I was just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Anyone could have done what I did."

Cain laughed as he slapped Shepard on the back: "That's half the secret to being successful in this trade, luck. By the throne, my entire career is built on being at the wrong place at the right time, or the right place at the wrong time…you get my point on that though."

Taking a sip of tana, the colonel continued: "Just as a heads up, interested groups in the Imperium are going to take a vested interest in your career now. I wouldn't be surprised if several Legions had a cold war to recruit you."

The Sergeant grimaced: "Er, yes sir. I don't suppose that my saying I would prefer to stay in the ODST would dissuade them overly sir? I'd rather be on the front lines, rather than kept back for shows of force, or to counter the Western Front issues...There is still a more than half of the Galaxy unexplored, who knows what might be out to the east?"

The old vet smiled: "I imagine that some Legion Commanders will be disappointed, but we do need all the fighting men we have able to fight; and the ODST can't really spare a man of your caliber just so the Legios can boast of another hero in their ranks. I'll pass on your wishes along with the recommendation, doctored to be more 'polite' of course."

Shepard visibly relaxed: "Thank you sir. I appreciate it."

A mischievous twinkle appeared in the former Commissar's eye: "Though you might get a promotion instead for your modesty. Officers with clear heads and small egos are rare. See you around Shepard."

With that, the Hero of the Imperium left, whistling a jaunty tune, all the while ignoring Michael's protests that he didn't want to be an officer.

 **Karshan: Two hours into the invasion:**

Karshan, capital of the Batarian Hegemony, in peace it was heavily fortified, and any willing visitors who could leave afterwards reported a feeling of malice and hate even looking at it. This feeling would now be suffocating as the defenses around the planet had reached double the size of those around Palaven pre-343.

The defenders hoped that the great distance between Karshan and the border would deplete the attacking Imperials. Indeed, the defenses of the worlds before this had been arranged in such a way as to attempt to bleed the Imperials dry. It was a sound plan, indeed if any other race in the known galaxy had tried it might have worked.

Unfortunately for the defenders, they were soon greeted by the sight of the Bearer of the Word emerging from slipspace; followed swiftly by one hundred other smaller ships. To their credit, the defenders didn't panic, and opened a disciplined barrage from every available gun in the system.

Despite the frenzied advancement since first contact with the Imperium making the guns defending Karshan some of the most dangerous outside of the Imperium, they had just as much trouble as the Turians at Pavalen over a decade ago even scratching the paint on the attacking vessels.

In fact even more so, as Aristotle, the AI aboard the Bearer, noted that none of the hits so much as registered on their shields. For a fraction of a second, the Imperials felt something akin to pity. But only due to how weak the defenders were, and how unworthy the Batarians were as foes. But then they got down to the matter at hand, and returned fire.

Brilliant beams of light and globules of plasma smashed into the comparatively primitive ships of the Hegemony. Each shot claimed at least one ship or station, vaporizing them under a barrage of intense heat and energy. Some rounds missed, and hit the planet. Those areas turned to glass, as everything was vaporized in a kilometer from the impact zone.

All the while, the Imperial fleet got closer to the planet, shrugging off every round that struck them. They were advancing slowly, more for intimidation than anything else. When the space around the planet was cleared five minutes later, the Bearer of the Word brought its special weapons to bear.

In a scene out of an early twentieth century disaster movie, the barrels on the EMP cannons glowed ominously. And then, without warning, they fired. The rounds moved slowly, it was over a minute from firing to it actually affecting the planet. But when it did, the effect was immediate, the whole planet went dark.

As soon as that happened, the ground forces deployed. It was time to seize the jewel in the Batarian crown.

 **Surface:**

The previous encounters between the actual Imperial Military and the Batarians had been one sided slaughter fests as is. But that was with the Batarians armed. Imagine the scene now. Over three million combat forces, granted they were mostly trooper droids, descended on a world inhabited by over eighty billion. Eighty billion without power to their weapons and armor, twenty billion of whom were slaves, fie billion still with enough will to take a knife to their "masters."

It was a massacre of unprecedented scale in Citadel history. Millions died in seconds, unable to stop the slaves, or killed by Imperial Military forces. After the initial landing the Imperials spread out, "pacifying" the planet. Any who surrendered were spared and herded into concentration camps for "reconditioning," those who did not died in short order.

It was just a matter of mopping up for the most part, although the "Ashen Circles" who ran the camp had a bigger job. Destroying the Batarian mind set and culture, and rebuilding them from the ground up; it was a challenge they looked forward to. They would turn the Batarians from the scum they were, into nearly model citizens…Of course their genetics not being human prevented them from being perfect…But hey, the ISB was working on it…In the meantime they would be perfect fodder for the Western Front once reconditioned.

Similar things were happening all over the former Batarian Hegemony. Even though it would take another two hours before the invasion was completely done, the ground work for the future was already underway.

 **Tera: Imperial Palace: Four hours after the fall of Karshan, two after the end of all Batarian resistance  
**

The Emperor stood before the Senate, waiting for the signal that the transmission was going out to the entire galaxy. One of his Custodian Guards, a member of one of the support cadres, nodded once to show they were ready. Taking a breath, the Emperor spoke: "Citizens of the Galaxy. As you all know, as of seven hours ago, the Imperium has been at war with the Batarian Hegemony."

Here he paused for effect: "I am PLEASED to report that the Hegemony has ceased to exist as of two hours ago. In accordance with the traditions of our distant past, we will rebuild the Batarians into a race worthy of the title 'sentient.' This is not for debate. Until we feel the Batarians are able to reintegrate with galactic society, we will be keeping them under guard; much like one would a dangerous criminal…"

The Emperor spoke for another five minutes, outlining roughly what was going to happen to the Hegemony without going too far into detail. As he finished, he felt a strange sensation in the Unknown Regions.

 **Next time: ?**

Codex: Ashen Circle

A vestige of the old Legion formation; the Ashen Circle are experts in "re-education" and the destruction of knowledge. Silent and aloof, these warriors are one of the elite cadres of their legion. When rapid assaults are needed, they are called on. When cultures must be brought in line with Imperial doctrine, they are brought in, to subtly change them. And when the Emperor demands the destruction of a culture, THEY are brought in. They are the Ashen Circle. And you cannot hide your deviance from them.

Codex: Mysterious signals

Imperial Intelligence has detected several signals of unknown origins…Several in the space between galaxies, these are believed to be the signals of the ones controlling the Mega Nids. Several prowlers have been sent to discover the truth. There are also several in the region beyond the Citadel, and the Terminus systems. These are a lower priority to Intelligence then the ones to the West…As they have ninety percent of the Imperium's effective military might lock up there.

Codex: C.N.N. Poll on the opinion of the fall of the Hegemony

The poll on the overall opinion was positive, in favor of the Imperium taking control. Overwhelmingly so in many races cases, the Turians and Asari for instance. Really the only ones NOT pleased were the Batarians who had been outside the Hegemony, before they "vanished;" and the Hanar, still angered by the Imperium "discarding the gifts of the enkindlers."

Codex: Shepard, a Rising Hero

In the days after the Batarian conflict, an award ceremony was held for Shepard. It was an event full of all the proper military pomp and circumstance, during which Shepard was given the Star of Tera, a DSC, and an Iron Cross second class for his actions during the brief conflict. As well as this, he was promoted from Sergeant, to Staff Sergeant. Afterwards there was a lovely reception.

The only negative part of the day of the ceremony? Shepard had to be ORDERED to come and accept his award and promotion. The half Eldar was off fighting pirates to try and avoid his awards.

During the ceremony he gave an interview that contained a single line that summed up his view: "I'm just a lucky man. Anyone could be in my shoes, anyone could do what I did with what I had. If I deserve these medals, then the CDF troopers who died doing their duty deserve more." Indeed, it seemed the Imperium's newest hero was the most modest man to walk the galaxy.

We'll leave you with one other piece of information. Shepard, after the ceremony, "requested" to be redeployed to the front so he could: "Actually earn these medals fighting the enemies of the Imperium."

Review please and thank you


	11. (it won't let me name it what I want)

AN: It's been a while. "heartfangs," That'll happen eventually. "frankieu," Wrong, it's not the Reapers. And the CNN codex thing was a general look at it, because I have more to cover. "Clare Prime of Ultra," that's how I always saw Shepard when I played him, a soldier who just wanted to do his part and knew that others could have done the same in his shoes. Sadly the world isn't that nice and neat, plus if I used too much Deus Ex Machina it wouldn't be fun to write this. "Guest," you are SO far off it isn't even funny. "Slim A Lou Prime," A new threat. "ShadowCub," first off good to see another old reader here, but the batarians are being completely rewritten, it's not so much letting them in as it is destroying their culture and rebuilding them in the Imperial image. "EvilTheLast," He's actually not that OP compared to later things, or to Legion Commanders. "ThedemonlordPingu," all the Halo xenos are classified as extinct at this point in time. As for that, well, it held the Imperium together for all those years, and Chaos is no longer a threat, so the Emperor tolerates it and religion. Or if you want a more asshole reason, too low a population for a civil war to be a viable means of the Emperor purging religion, but again why would he want to at this point. "green cunt," thanks, and yes no Mass Effect Humans. "Trooper007," I'll probably throw a codex entry in somewhere…Although it wasn't Taldeer but her pure blood Eldar daughter, cause I was a young and foolish writer who though 6 was gonna be the protag for the entire trilogy. As a side note, Omega is in Citadel Space, you'll see why I chose to do that. Time to start the show.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **?**

 **Terminus Region: Warlord Krulk's Territory: Ranalf System**

Warlord Krulk was an OLD Krogan. Krogan were long lived, perhaps even longer lived than Asari, though their warlike culture prevented most from reaching their natural lifespan. To be long lived in Krogan society one must be strong enough to crush their rivals. But only the most cunning and intelligent lasted this long. He was old when the Krogan Rebellion occurred, and people said he would be still alive when the galaxy ended.

He had carved a large swathe of territory in the terminus system; it was just a little smaller than that of the Turians. And he had turned it into a militaristic state to surpass them. True the Citadel had been modernizing, but the old Krogan hadn't been wedded to the ways of the past, and technology had been one of their strengths.

Ranalf 1 was one of the primary defensive outposts of this hegemony; it was defended by twelve dreadnoughts, fifty cruisers, one hundred frigates, and twelve massive space stations. It was a world that would be the pride of many nations of the galaxy, it had a populace of one billion, and provided resources to the Warlord's domain for his plans of defeating the Citadel and the Imperium to bring Krogan, and those who would obey them willingly, back to dominance over the galaxy.

They thought they were safe, they thought the protections they were provided would be enough to hold all but the Imperium back long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Indeed this had proven to be the case in the border clashes between Krulk and his neighbors.

But they were not ready for when a massive rip in reality, discharging raw warp energy into real space, appeared in the system. They were not prepared for it to disgorge a ONE HUNDRED KILOMETER LONG WARSHIP and its escorts into the system. The smallest of which was twenty five kilometers long.

In the brief time before a first contact was attempted, the defenders took in the sight of the vessels. They were obviously gigantic, only the primary defensive station was equal in size to any of the new comers, and even then it was still dwarfed by the gigantic flagship. They were crude in appearance, hammered plates painted red made up the bulk of the ships' hulls, with various "figure heads" of crudely made skulls and other iconography on their prows. Despite their crude appearance they were bristling with weapons. Most of which the defenders couldn't make heads or tails of.

As the first contact packet transmitted, the newcomers ships accelerated towards the planet. One last attempt was made to resolve this peacefully, but it was ignored by the newcomers. The defenders sent a request for reinforcements as they opened fire, sending mass accelerator rounds through the void at their targets.

Despite the attacking ship's crudeness, their defenses were active. And the mass accelerator rounds, even the main gun from the primary station, a gun developed to theoretically destroy any ship built on Mass Effect technology up to a seventy five kilometer one, did nothing to the attackers. In fact it seemed to amuse them...This comes from the fact that inexplicably, coming THROUGH the walls and the void of space was a sound that could be vaguely described as "singing."

"Fifteen Orks on a dead man's hulk. Starin' down the barrel of a gun. Gruntin' to each uvva through big sharp teef Sayin' 'this one'll give us some fun.' " The massive ships, would have been recognizable to the Imperials before, but now the singing would have confirmed it. Orks. The Green Tide had returned from beyond the grave.

The "song" continued: "Fourteen orks on a ship. Killing everything that ain't green. Grunting to each uvva through big sharp teef 'Saying times are getting lean.' " The massive Ork warships barreled through the defenders fire, heedless of the pathetic weapon fire arrayed against them. They had yet to return fire.

By now the defenders were getting desperate, even anti orbital batteries on the surface were having no effect: "Thirteen Orks on the captain's chest. Looking to quench their greedy thirst. Grunting to each uvva through big sharp teef Saying 'I was da wun dat found it first!' " The Ork ships didn't stop, and they were going at such speeds that the defenders couldn't get out of the way. As a consequence, the Greenskin warships PLOWED through the inadequate defenses with their sheer armored bulk, shattering whatever they hit into debris.

The invaders continued singing as they reached geosynchronous orbit around the world: "One Ork left to steal the loot. Wishing it hadn't turned out so. Grunting to itself through big sharp teef Saying 'I shoulda let the pilot go!' " For a few minutes nothing happened. Then several meteors dropped from the one hundred km long ship, the Imperium would know them as Roks.

 **Planet Side:  
**

The defenders on the ground had just barely started mustering then the Roks landed outside of the primary space ports. The impacts shattered windows, threw air cars into buildings and the ground, and tossed the defenders into the air and back to the ground. As the defenders got to their feet and took stock of their situation it was already too late.

Pouring out of the Roks came millions of Orks. They were not the ones the Imperium would remember, ie unarmored, but slightly more technologically advanced. Every single one was clad in heavy armor, and carried a heavy caliber auto gun, the ubiquitous "shoota." Backing up the horde of infantry, many of whom were in primitive "truks," very well armored APCs, were tanks and artillery.

The vehicles of the Orks, while crude looking, were highly effective. The defensive guns of the port, designed to shred Citadel made vehicles up to three hundred years from now, had minimal effect, only managing to scratch the paint jobs of the crude tanks and armored vehicles. The return fire on the other hand, while extremely crude by comparison, had no trouble destroying their targets with high caliber explosive shells.

Artillery shells arced high into the air, and came down on the skyscrapers. These shells punched through floor after floor before landing in the basement and detonating, collapsing entire mile tall structures with a single blast. The tank round flew at a flatter trajectory, but whatever they hit was erased, whether it be a shielded and armored gun emplacement, or a civilian building.

The intensity of this fire drove the defenders into the cities, allowing the Ork Infantry to gain a foothold. This was the key mistake the defenders made, as Imperial tactics would dictate, the only way to WIN against Orks was to stop them from gaining a foothold…But the mixed force the Warlord had assigned to protect the planet didn't know that, and doomed themselves to defeat.

With a foothold established, the Orks made rapid progress. The hand held weapons of the defenders had more effect than the defensive guns did against the tanks, by which I mean a two squads could take down one Ork. So strongpoints were established that the Orks flowed around. For a while, it seemed like this would slow the horde long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

But then, they arrived. If the regular Orks were heavily armored, these were walking tanks. Thick slab shields covered their fronts, with slots just big enough for shootas to poke through, and behind that was armor even thicker than that of the other orks. These assault Orks cleared the strongpoints from the ground floor up using grenades or pure firepower.

When that took too long, Stormboys, the rokkitpack equipped assault specialists, were deployed to hit from the sky. This combined arms attack over ran the positions in rapid succession. Any who stood against them were slain, only the civilians were spared but not out of mercy, the Runt Herders needed as many as they could get their hands on them and learn of where the Orks were now.

In the end the ports were secured in less than an hour after this tactic was employed. And with the star ports secured, the Orks set about securing the rest of the world…and constructing several strange structures on the surface. It would be another few hours before the world was secured and the buildings completed, but in orbit there was another battle waging.

 **Orbit:**

"Admiral" Kraalus was one of the one thousand Battle Masters who followed Krulk into exile. He had been granted the title of Admiral for being the most experienced Krogan when it came to naval warfare, though he was just a captain in the Krogan navy back in the "Rebellion."

That, and his loyalty to the older Krogan. Krulk was his Krant, and he would never betray the trust placed in him. Even so, as his forces emerged from the relay, one thousand ships strong, the task before him seemed impossible.

No matter how he approached it tactically in his head as he ordered his fleet to attack in "Fist" formation, there was no way to overcome the behemoth at the heart of the fleet. But he was Krogan, and to run from a fight was disgraceful. As such he commited himself fully to the fight, KNOWING he would lose.

Mass accelerator fire from the ships he brought, as well as torpedoes, slammed into the enemy, and did miniscule damage. The fighters and bombers he deployed did about as well against the Orkoid fleet. This kept up for a minute, before he decided to concentrate his fire on ONE ship at a time. But even as he issued that order, the Orks made their move.

Hundreds of thousands of "flakk" guns opened up, scything the attacking craft out of the sky even as they deployed their own "Foighta Bombas." Then the main guns, or he hoped they were primary weapons, opened up. The sheer WALL of fire thrown at his fleet was staggering, but the damage done was even worse. In seconds his frigate escorts melted away under the firepower directed against them.

Without the frigates and the fighters for dedicated anti-fighter duty, he had to order power to be taken away from the guns to be shunted to the Guardian Lasers. This helped deal with the incoming Ork craft, and their missiles, but this slackening of fire was fatal. The Ork fleet maneuvered the few badly damaged ships behind the one hundred kilometer warship, which bore the name "Conquera," and continued their attack.

Within two minutes the majority of Kraalus' fleet was in ruins. The "Admiral" ordered one ship to retreat and bring tactical recordings of the battle to Krulk. As soon as the ship withdrew, and it was just his flagship facing the enemy fleet, he received an even nastier surprise. A new portal opened, and a ship THREE times the size of the behemoth that had annihilated his force emerged along with its escort.

The Krogan knew that if that ship survived, nothing Ezero based could stop it conventionally. So he did the one thing he could. He ordered the ship to go FTL aimed right at the massive ship. He hoped it would at least cripple the leviathan of a ship. As they spun up their drives, a single shot exited the massive ship. It was half a kilometer in diameter, and moved far too fast to be reacted to. Knowing his fate, the old Krogan bellowed out his defiance even as the round vaporized his ship.

The Orks now had their entrance into the Galaxy, their beacons allowing the rest of their kind to arrive.

 **TIMELINE: 6.24 AU/6.2670 CC -12.25 AU/12.2671 CC**

6.24 AU/6.2670 CC: The Orks rapidly spread into the territory of Warlord Krulk. The Krogan seeks aid from his neighbors, and is only given it when the Orks attack in their directions.

7.24 AU/7.2670 CC: The STG presents evidence of a new race emerging in the Terminus to the Council in a closed session. It is instantly marked as classified outside of the highest echelons of government, the Politicians not wanting to cause a panic or have the Imperium ruin the first contact.

The Orks continue their assault on the Terminus, having driven the nearest Warlords out of their territory and forcing the Terminus to unite against them.

Saren Arterius begins observing the Orks in preparation for the diplomatic mission in a month's time.

Shepard and Ashley begin a stint as instructors in a wargame, code named "Operation: Breaker." It is a theoretical scenario in which the Citadel forces manage to match the Imperium tech wise and open war is waged.

Tali's pilgrimage takes her close to the Perseus Veil, while there she gathers observations on Geth Space for report (knowing in the back of her mind that the Imperium probably knew more than she could observe already.

Alenko starts another stint on the Western Front.

8.24 AU/8.2670 CC: Saren turns in his report on the Orks. He assesses that they are warlike and would be more likely to attack then negotiate. He suggests that the Council allows the Imperium to beat this highly aggressive race down before negotiating, that way they negotiate from a position of strength. His advice and report is ignored.

The Citadel sends a diplomatic team led by Matriarch Alesia to meet the Orks. They get to Greenskin territory easily enough, but are prevented from entering for a whole week by the "Navy." Eventually they are granted an audience with Warboss Battlebrakkah. The negotiations go well.

According to the Ork, who stood a head taller than an Elcor, they fled some kind of calamity, and they were in need of supplies and reliable maps to survive.

The Council readily starts supplying the greenskins with food, information, and citadel weapons and armor. The one glaring hole in this info, due to the Specter Corps, fearing the Orks would not be as peaceful as the Council believed, calling in favors to hide this piece of info, is that the Imperium is not mentioned.

Needless to say, this was just a ruse on the part of the Orks. Their "Big Boss" had ordered information gathered on the races of the galaxy beyond the territory they were conquering now.

9.24 AU/ 9.2670 CC: The Imperium gets the rights to build several outposts in Citadel space, provided Citadel Navies could: rearm, repair, and refuel.

The Orks take even more territory. The Meks have finished analyzing the information given by the Council. The Citadel is determined to be weaker than the Orks, from a pure technological stand point. "Da Big Boss" begins planning probing attacks against the Citadel.

12.24 AU/12.2670 CC: The Terminus systems make their final stand in the Tural System.

 **Tural System: Space**

The last holdout of the Terminus Warlords had become the most fortified system outside of the Imperium. The last one hundred thousand ships in Terminus had gathered together, and the system had hundreds of small stations designed just to fire a main gun on par with a dreadnought. The warlords knew they were doomed to fail, but their pride prevented them from calling for aid, they would die on their own terms.

The first Ork ships to arrive were kilometer long "Dakka Boats," basically engines strapped to oversized cannons. The dakka boats opened fire instantly, their guns were inaccurate but powerful, each shot that connected destroyed a Terminus vessel, no matter the class. The Terminus forces closed to weapon range and opened fire.

While the dakka boats were heavily armed, they lacked the armor of other ork vessels, and were quickly destroyed. But this attack served another purpose. It had drawn the Terminus forces out of position, just as the "Big Boss" had planned.

Between the Terminus fleet and their defensive stations and guns appeared the true vanguard of the Ork Fleet. At its head was a fifty kilometer long warship, the "Bad Omun," and it was led by Warboss Dreambasha, an ork who stood at ten feet tall and was one of the primary war leaders of the "Big Boss."

The Warboss ordered his fleet to attack as soon as they entered real space. Their sudden appearance and firepower allowed them to destroy the orbital defenses and guns quickly. Within a minute the space was clear except the ninety nine thousand Terminus ships and the one hundred Ork vessels.

The Terminus fleet turned and engaged Dreambasha's fleet, they moved as fast as they could to intercept the Orks, trying to prevent another Rok Drop. As they crossed into their maximum range, the Orks fired. The space between the two fleets was filled with massive cannon rounds from the Orks, and mass accelerator rounds from the Teminus. It was a beautiful display from a distance, blue rounds intermingling with golden-orange shells from ork cannons; due to the density of fire, the rounds would sometimes intercept one and other.

The Terminus had to concentrate their fire to down any of the Ork vessels, but the Orks could just fire and kill…eventually. Terminus weapons were much more accurate compared to the greenskin guns, but they fired MUCH slower. For every hundredth shell fired, the Orks claimed a kill.

The one hundred Ork ships claimed one thousand kills, but had been dropped to twenty four in number. But that was fine, they had done their job. Behind the Terminus fleet emerged the bulk of the Ork Fleet, sixty thousand ships, led by a two hundred kilometer behemoth.

Caught between the dwindled number of the vanguard, and the main fleet, the Terminus forces died quickly. Within a minute the entire Terminus Alliance navy was exterminated. This led to the Orks deploying their Roks to seize the world.

 **Tural Prime: Ground**

A month ago, Goskam was a regular boy in his mob, but he had shown aptitude for assault tactics during several of the previous campaigns, and had been transferred to an assault mob. Now in addition to the standard 50mm thick armor, shoota, and choppa he carried before, he had twelve stikk grenades and a 100mm thick shield.

Earlier in the Ork invasion assault units like him were held back, but now that the Orks knew their foe, the Assault Mobs were deployed as the vanguard in every battle. The superior armor they were issued allowing them to wade through even more intense fire than other Orks.

His mob had been assigned to breach the trench lines of the Terminus forces in Secta A, one of the most heavily defended zones, and also where "da best scrap wuz." And they were looking forward to it. At five thousand meters out they locked their shields and advanced into the maelstrom of fire that started to pour out of the defenses.

To most sentients the sound of mass accelerator fire sheeting off metal armor was very disquieting, no one likes being under fire after all. But to Goskam and his fellow assault Orks? It was a relaxing sound, as relaxing as rain on a tin roof would be to a human or an Asari.

By the time they were one thousand meters out they had lost one hundred of their number, completely due to heavier caliber guns, and had not fired once. Then, they broke into a dead sprint. Most would find running in a ton of steel and other metals unaided exhausting, but this was nothing compared to training. Where the Nobs in charge of churning out fresh Assault Boyz made sure they could run at a dead sprint in three times the dead weight for two thousand meters.

Ten meters out they lobbed their stikk bombs, the grenades arcing right into the enemy defenses. Thousands of detonations occurred simultaneously all along the trench line, and then the Orks were among the defenders.

Compared to the individual weapons of Terminus and Citadel forces, or indeed the Imperium, the garden variety shoota was nothing special or worth really noting. It was a chemical propelled solid slug firing weapon, with a range of one thousand meters roughly, which fired massive rounds rather inaccurately. But in close quarters the shoota was devastating, as the assault boyz proved.

Goskam emptied ten rounds down a section of the trench, claiming six kills at five meters and another twelve who were beyond them. He then moved towards one of the identified command posts, his shoota speaking for him when the guards tried to stop him. After the area around the bunker was cleared, Shokum, one of the demolition "experts," in so much as he hadn't yet blown himself up, rigged breaching charges.

The boy counted down till breach as the "team" huddled up: "Ten, noine, eight, sevun, sex, foive, foor, free, tuu, une. KABOOOOM!" That was swiftly followed by the whole side of the bunker imploding, allowing entry. The assault boyz rushed in, shootas blazing away at anything not Orky.

Goskam was in constant motion. Looking around, "aiming," pulling the trigger, ending another target's life in a puddle of blood and gore that stained the floors and walls…rinse and repeat; he had racked up thirty kills in the complex when an eight foot tall Krogan barreled into him, knocking the shield out of his grip and embedding it into a wall.

This angered the Ork: "OYE! DAT WUZ MOI SHIELD IT WUZ! YER GONNA ZOGGING PAY FER DAT YA GIT!" He opened fire with the shoota, but the Krogan was wily, and managed to evade the shots or misdirect the enraged Ork's shots. It would be almost comical to watch if it wasn't for how blood thirsty the two races were, as it almost looked like some weird dance.

But the assault boy grew tired of it, and tossed his shoota aside while drawing his choppa. Now, the term choppa is a general term for melee weapons in the Ork vernacular, it could be anything from a simple "knife" with a two foot long bulky blade to a massive ten foot or longer one with a power field. Goskam's would be called a "power dagger" by the conventions of the Imperium.

The Krogan was understandably weary of this blade, and tried to keep his distance…But the ork was having none of it: "COME 'ERE YOU! I NEED YER SKULL FER ME TROPFEE RACK!" And lunged after the Krogan, who was constantly trying to stay out of reach of that deadly blade, and failing for the most part...but not in a major way, at most the Krogan was getting nicks and shallow cuts.

But he couldn't keep it up forever, and in the end he stumbled, and the power weapon cleanly severed the Krogan's head from his head. Goskam hooted in joy: "Dat's more loike it!"

He swiftly picked up the severed head and stashed it in his pack before retrieving his gear. The fight on the planet was far from over.

 **TIMELINE: 1.25 AU/1.2671 CC-6.25 AU/6.2671 CC**

1.25 AU/1.2671 CC: The final resistance in the Terminus systems dies out. The Orks, in a very unorky move, set about securing their new base of operations. Factory worlds and shipyards were set up outside of the Mass Relay network so the Citadel couldn't find them, and ships were "decomishuned" to make the Citadel lower their guard.

The Imperium beats back another wave of mega nids, it's becoming a monotonous routine at this point for the frontline troops. However, the higher ups and intelligence believed that these were just probes due to how few nids were being sent in the last few waves, and redoubled the fortifications around the western frontier.

Operation Breaker ends. Those assigned to the op are given a month of leave.

Wrex carries out a mission for the Shadow Broker to raid Hanar convoys.

2.25 AU/2.2671 CC: Captain Anderson undergoes a specter candiancy run under the watchful eye of Saren. The mission they undertake is completed successfully with no civilian casualties, however Saren says that the navy officer does not have the versatility to be a Specter. Something Anderson begrudgingly agrees with, as his area of expertise in ship to ship combat.

STG operatives raise concerns over the lack of visible factories and shipyards in Ork space, but their concerns are suppressed by the Chief of the STG, Daltress Dala.

3.25 AU/3.2671 CC: A strange incident happens on Terra, but the details are quickly classified. But keen observers would note that five divisions of marines and two Legion Companies, one Raven Guard the other Imperial Herald, were redeployed to Terra for some unknown reason.

Imperial Intelligence deploys Spartan Vs, the latest generation of non legio super soldiers, to hunt for the source of the nids, and to reinforce various Imperial outposts. One such outpost that receives three hundred operatives is code named "Thermopylae."

4.25 AU/4.2671 CC: Small bands of Orks begin probing attacks into Citadel space, these bands are beaten back at moderate losses by the Asari and Salarian navies. Diplomats scramble to find out what was going on.

According to the official statement from the Ork Warboss Battlebrakkah, these were breakaway tribes within the Orks who wanted their own clan lands. He reassures the Citadel that they are doing their best to contain further such incidents.

The losses are blamed on Terminus forces, as the general public doesn't know about Orks yet.

5.25 AU/5.2671 CC: In the wake of the largest attack to date, the Orks stage a demonstration for Citadel top brass where they destroy a "breakaway" fleet of two thousand ships that had been heading to Citadel space. While not fully comforted, the Citadel military officials back down their mobilization orders.

This was another trick of the Orks, the ships they destroyed were controlled by a skeleton crew of grots, and no real threat.

The Blue Suns take on a job escorting a Citadel exploratory force into the unexplored East of the Galaxy.

6.25 AU/6.2671: The Orks launch a full scale invasion into Asari and Salarian space. This assault surprises the Citadel, and shows them how badly they had been misled by the orks. Their diplomats try and get ahold of Battlebrakkah, only to find he's leading the invasion under orders from "Da Big Boss."

The Citadel scrambles desperately to halt the advance, while trying to keep the information about the invasion as quite as they can.

 **Next time: Savagery Unmatched, Heroism Unparalleled**

Review please and thank you

Codex: Ork Hierarchy in the Khanate  
Within the Ork horde there is a strictly enforced meritocracy. The most violent and intelligent orks advance, those who fail fall down the totem pole.

At the top is "Da Big Boss," not much is known about this being, save for the fact that this one Ork has kept the horde together, he must be an Ork of immense power.

Below him are "Da Generals," each a powerful warlord in their own right. However they are unable to unseat "Da Big Boss," either due to being too weak or too loyal to do anything.

Below them are the Warbosses, the lords of various clans and mobs. They hold their own fiefdoms and seats of power, but in the end answer to "Da Generals" and "Da Big Boss."  
Then there are the "Underbosses." These orks are not as powerful as a Warboss, and mainly take care of the day to day affairs of their boss' territory or lead detatchments of Boyz and Nobz from the front.

Then there are the well-known positions of Nob, Boy, and then the Gretchens.

Outside of the chain are doks and mekboys, who serve under patrons who found use for their talents…As well as brainboyz and weird boyz.

Codex: Progress Report on finding the source of the Mega Nids

So far Imperial Intellegence has found several artificial worlds that spawn the nids, and several others that augment them. We obviously destroyed those worlds, yet the tide keeps coming. We are no closer to the source than we were before.

Codex: ISD progress report as of 6.25 AU  
Mk XI Legionary armor entering production  
Marine next generation power armor entering prototype phase

Mijonlr Mk X Entering production  
Aegis Armor production started for the Custodes  
"E" series entering prototyping

M9 Family of weapons prototyping

Fleet production rates rising  
Western front, 90 percent upgraded  
"G" Series Bioweapons first batch ready for deployment, next batch will be ten times as numerous

XF project blueprinting


	12. Savagery Unmatched, Heroism Unparalleled

AN: War…War never changes. "MEleeSmasher," Codex entry this chapter. "Trooper0007," good suggestion, but not what I have in mind. "armentho," already have it on the Western front. "Cosmicsafe74," Ezero is redundant for them. And I do rule of cool mainly. Time to get back to the WAAAAAAAAAGH!

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **Savagery Unmatched, Heroism Unparalleled**

 **Asari Space: Terul System: Asari Cruiser: "Light of Reason": One week after the last chapter**

Captain Revelia Vasir, older sister to the specter Tela Vasir, looked across the void at her foes as the ship shook from another shell being fired. The Light was one of the most advanced cruisers in Asari space, with a gun comparable to a Pre-Imperial contact dreadnought, and protection equal to one. Indeed, the newest cruisers would have been called pocket dreadnoughts back in the day.

The main gun's shell slammed home into an ork escort vessel roughly equal in size to their ship. The lack of a shield on the target allowed it to slam into the thick armor, and normally this would defeat a Citadel type warship, however, the Light was firing armor piercing shells. Thusly the rounds went straight through the thick armor and dealt catastrophic damage to the interior of the target.

There was no cheering though, that was just one ship the 12th Asari fleet was facing, out of a horde of five hundred ships. Granted, none were over three kilometers, but that was not the case elsewhere. The Asari was half tempted to contact the Imperials about this for help, but the orders still stood to keep them out of the loop on the Ork situation.

Still though, so far the superior maneuverability of the citadel fleet and their longer ranged guns allowed them to keep ahead of the Orks. Though it did little to stem the tide, every minute more and more Ork fleets were reported around the border between the Citadel and the former Terminus Systems. Eventually by sheer force of numbers the Orks would break through, and when they did nothing would be able to stop a complete collapse of the line.

And so the Citadel forces fought on, more fleets being pulled into the fray every few minutes, but it still was up in the air. Even as dozens of ships fell all across the galaxy every second, the green tide showed no signs of slowing. All too soon though, the tide of battle began to turn in the favor of the Orks, as the larger ships now deployed.

Revelia had the misfortune of having a pair of fifty kilometer ships appear in her sector, irrevocably handing momentum to the Orks. The voice of the Admiral piped through to her ship: **"All ships break off combat and disengage. The line has been breached in multiple areas. We cannot hold here, withdraw to secondary defensive positions."**

The Asari captain bit back a curse: "Helm get us out of here as fast as you can. Gunners, keep the Ork fighters off us. We're not out of this war yet, not by a long shot." And yet, in her heart, she knew this was the beginning of the end. With the initial front taken, the number of places that had to be held would multiply tenfold, stretching the already outnumbered fleets even further.

At this point though, a round from one of the fifty kilometer long behemoths slammed into the much smaller cruiser. The last thought the ill-fated captain had was of her younger sister, and hoping the council would get their heads out of their asses before it was too late.

 **Salarian Space: Sartak system: Primary World, ground side**

Lieutenant Falan was an average Salarian military man. Well trained, well equipped, and highly competent…at least, he was. Salarian military doctrine relied on their allies to provide the heavier lifting while the STG cripples the enemy with preemptive strikes. The main Salarian military forces were built around this doctrine, and were thus lightly armed and armored compared to the Turians.

As such, they were ill prepared for when the Orks landed. Sure, they had bunkers and defenses, and their weaponry was superior to that of the Terminus, but that just meant it took half as many shots to penetrate the thick armor of the attacking infantry, let alone their armor support.

The salarian's mind was working a mile a minute as he fired perfectly aimed headshot at an Ork, and failed to drop him: _"The STG and Citadel Intelligence agency screwed the varen here."_ A follow up shot gave the Ork a massive headache, but did little else. _"If we were informed of this possibility earlier, we may have had a shot at slowing them, or even stopping them."_ A third shot to the same point on the helmet broke through and put the ork down.

There were too many though. Soon the Orks were in the city. Here the inefficiency of the equipment of the Salarian military was fully laid bare. Their equipment was meant for long range combat, due to their fragile bodies, not for medium range to close quarters like the Orks. And now they were paying for it.

Lt Falan looked on in anger as his men were slaughtered in brutal close quarters fighting. Chopas, while crude, were extremely effective as cutting through Salarian light and even HEAVY armors. That wasn't even taking into account the casualties caused by heavy caliber weapons they used.

As his sniping position was finally found by the orks, he drew his pistol and fired. The heavy caliber rounds of the Imperial made Carnifex tearing into the Orks with ease: _"Worth every credit."_ He thought as he put down another ork. Behind him was a hospital ward full of infants, yes, he had made a poor choice of location, but there really was nowhere else to fire from.

Eventually the Salarian was finally killed, a choppa to the back from an ork in purple camouflage. The last few seconds of his life as he bled out were on two thoughts: _"May their families forgive me for failing in my duty."_ And: _"How did a being that large slip around behind him unnoticed?"_ With that thought in mind, he died.

 **Palaven: Turian High Command:**

The war room in high command was a scene of chaos; officers reporting the situation in dozens of systems, orders being issued to fleets to reroute them to aid the Salarians and the Asari in the defense of their systems. The various generals and admirals of high command were amongst the best planners and organizers in the Citadel alliance, and were able to mobilize rapidly…Though this meant leaving token garrisons near the Imperium.

General Valareius, an elder Turian officer, stared at the map. He had been a flag officer back when the dreadnought's main gun was the deciding factor in every battle. But he was seeing the destruction of most big gun formations the Asari and Salarians had at their disposal.

The only formations that did well were those with mobile suit forces in them. The orks had no real analogue for them, and were not able to match their versatility in space. On the ground they were still potent, but the Ork analogue walkers were equipped with armor and weapons able to beat them one on one. Current doctrine dictates that if anything larger than a Stompa is detected all firepower is to be directed against these monstrous machines.

As much as the Admiral wanted to believe they could win, all evidence pointed to the contrary. The Orks hand more ships than the Citadel, and much larger ones as well. They were outnumbered at least ten to one in the most conservative of estimates…though he knew they were more outnumbered. Before he could do anything more than contemplate this fact, a colonel cried out in alarm from his post.

 **Thalasia: Black Watch Operative Turenius: Five minutes ago**

Turenius was ecstatic, they had beaten back the Orks. All around the planet Ork forces were in full fledged retreat, their transports withdrawing all that remained of their attack. In the field they left the bodies of a hundred thousand of their own, thousands of tanks, and even a dozen stompas. It hadn't gone all the way of the citadel.

The defenses of the Asari Fortress World were shattered. Bunkers broken open, their defenders killed by chopas or burnas; anti-orbital defenses crumpled by stompas with giant hammers…the walls and shields of the world's primary cities destroyed by explosive charges or tanks. The once mighty planet was in ruins.

Everyone knew that if a second wave came, it was all over. But they didn't care. They had inflicted the first defeat on the Orks since their invasion started a week ago. Morale was at an all-time high for the defenders, if they had to they would have fought with rocks and sticks against the Orks without complaint or fear. In fact he swore he did see a band of civilians beating an ork to death in just such a way earlier.

But as they were caught in their elation, they didn't realize something was wrong until it was too late. They never dared to dream the Orks would utilize the tactic they did. And then the skies fell. Thousands of high caliber shells impacted the surface in a rain of metal. The land was rent asunder under the shear amount of fire brought to bear against the planet.

Cities vanished in seas of fire, armies were pounded into oblivion by screaming death. All of this was because the defenders held up the Ork assault. The warlord in charge of this group had his instructions from The Big Boss, and he would keep to that schedule. And thus a world of one billion souls burned in the fires of war.

The final transmission from the dying world was this: "Do not give up. The Orks can be beaten. Long live the civilized peoples of the Galaxy."

 **The Citadel: Combined War room: Three hours later**

The death of Thalasia was both horrifying, and yet a turning point in the war. It showed just what ends the Orks would go to in their pursuit of conquest. This sparked a ground swelling of recruits from the Citadel races. There would be no shortage of fighters, but the problem would be supplies and ships, the Citadel based companies couldn't keep up with demand, and the order to keep Imperials out of the loop still stood in effect, so Aquila and other Imperial manufacturers couldn't receive the massive orders that could turn the tide.

And so they waited for the Council to reverse their decision, all the way doing their best to hold out. Worlds with minor strategic values were abandoned, their people evacuated, leaving them to the Orks. Anywhere of strategic significance was protected with the fury of the damned. And it was working for now. But even the most optimistic of them knew it was only a matter of time before the Citadel fell.

But time was about to shift in their favor. Because the Orks had reached one of the Imperium's outposts in Citadel Space: Thermopylae.

 **In orbit of Thermopylae:**

Ork Boss Gersnak's fleet arrived in orbit of a system marked as uninhabited that the Big Boss wanted as a mining world, only to discover it was indeed defended. Not only defended, but by unknown forces. While the Orks recovered, the massive orbital fortresses opened fire. Lances of light streaked out and vaporized smaller ships in a single blow or crippled the larger ones.

The Orks rapidly activated their shields, which up till now had been unused. But all it did was double the amount of shots it took to destroy one. Still, that bought the boss time to report that "A good scrap" had been found. Within seconds hundreds of vessels started to pour in, then thousands. The orbital defenses were slowly being overwhelmed.

They had been designed for use against Citadel grade forces, not a threat as virulent as Orks. The shields started to flare, and then fail as more and more Ork ships poured in, swamping the station's defenses. Eventually the armor began to buckle too, and the weapon turrets began to fail. Still though the automated stations fought on; inflicting what would be horrendous losses to any other race.

But these were Orks, and it only encouraged more to arrive in system. When the stations finally fell, over a million Orks descended on the world, eager for a scrap. One they would find in the Spartan V garrison.

 **Planetside: Spartan Dallas**

Dallas was normal for a Spartan V, a professional special forces soldier from a long line of Human Super Soldiers. It was accurate to say that compared to the Legionaries, who were designed for open warfare, the Spartan Vs were closer in genetic augmentation and purpose to the Custodian Guard, warriors able to fight in a group but equally as comfortable as one man armies.

He had participated in multiple raids against pirates and other bodies, including a few strikes against the Terminus before the Orks arrived. He was a blooded killer with two thousand kills to his name. But even so, the arrival of the Greenskins at Thermopylae was a shock to everyone. Their initial arrive knocked out the delicate coms equipment, which was not designed to withstand warp portals opening.

As such while the orbital platforms held back the ever increasing tide, the INI and Naval personnel stripped the base of all information and boarded a stealth transport. They had one job. Bring news of the Ork assault. But they couldn't just leave, the Orks might detect them. So the Spartans volunteered to stay behind and keep the eyes of the Orks on them, so news could reach the Imperium.

It was a textbook suicide mission. The Orks had them outnumbered and outgunned by a margin of a million to one. Not to mention their heavier equipment and orbital superiority. But the Spartans would have it no other way. Their defensive plan involved three tiers of defense. Tier one was a force of one hundred fifty Spartans who would meet the Orks in open battle.  
Tier two was made of the defensive guns, manned by one hundred Spartans, they would provide support fire for tier one, as well as scythe down the attackers as they closed. The interior of the base was defended by the last fifty Spartans, as well as a lot of heavy equipment and interior auto turrets.

The hope was that this defense would slow the Orks long enough to keep their attention so the INI and Naval personnel could escape. And Dallas was at the forefront in tier one. He would meet the invaders head on, and he couldn't be more pleased. His parents were both from the Imperium of Man, and had fought Orks before. It felt like he was living up to their legacy by doing this.

His radio clicked: **"Alright boys and girls, the Orks are landing now. Give them a warm welcome. Show them why they should fear the Empire, and the Spartan Corps above all!"** Commander Dantiles was short and to the point as always.

The first Ork drop units landed, and while it was a surprise to see Orks actually armored and armed better than any era after the Great Crusade and the Rise of the Beast, it did not shake the Spartans. Who moved to engage in fierce close quarters fighting. The Spartans had one major advantage besides their augments over the Orks, they knew the phycology of the species.

Even if they had been trained to fight at range and as specialists, there was still an urge to fight hand to hand in every ork. It was this very quirk that the super soldiers took advantage of with their assault. By getting among the horde, the Orks would start to focus on them, preferring the melee fight immediately available, rather than ranged fighting.

For now it seemed to be working, Dallas observed as he ducked under a 'powered choppa' swing from a nob; the Orks were more focused on slaking their primal thirst for battle then advancing. A quick upper cut popped the head off the nob, followed by a roundhouse kick that sent a group of boyz flying.

But even still, the Orks were endless. Kill one and five more took its place it seemed. Eventually the strategy would start to fail. Several Spartans had already fallen, overwhelmed by sheer numbers and mechanized units. Though even in death they would take more of their attackers with them. When they died their armor's reactor would detonate, destroying everything in a one kilometer radius.

And so it went for several hours. The outer perimeter Spartans fighting on and on, gradually being forced back by the relentless tide of Orks. Whenever one died they would take more of the enemy with them, but those dead Orks would be replaced by more as subsequent waves of reinforcements arrived.

Eventually the thin grey line, even with the heavy support of defense sector two, was irreparably breached, and the Spartans had to withdraw. By the time they reached the fortified outpost, all but twenty five of them had fallen. As he entered the outpost, spraying laser rounds behind him, Dallas was livid.

These funguses dared to return from beyond the grave to haunt the Imperium. They dared to spill Imperial blood again? It didn't matter that he was doomed to die. He and his fellows would do so much damage they would scar the Orks worse than the Luna Wolves did! This he swore to the Emperor!

At this point the telltale noise of the stealth corvette taking off filled the facility before dying down. The INI and Naval personnel were now on their way to the Imperium at large. Cheers filled the complex as they realized this. Whatever else happened, the Imperium at large would be warned.

 **Orbit: Flaagbaara: Flagship of Warlord Roksnit**

Roksnit had just arrived in this Gork and Mork forsaken system, and already he was displeased. This dalliance was holding up The Big Boss' kunning plan. The line should be two systems past this point by now, but because of this one world they had been delayed by three hours so far. This was unacceptable, as such he had been sent to take command by The Big Boss himself.

He had arrived too late to put an end to the casualties they were taking, the estimates of his kommand squid was in the millions. And he was too late to stop a ship from leaving the system. But by Gork he would win, because that's what Orks do, they fight, and they WIN!

No more would the ground forces be distracted or tied down. They would attack, and continue to attack. If one of the boyz was in the way he would be trampled. If line of sight was obstructed they would shoot anyways. If walls created a choke point, they would blow THROUGH the walls. No longer would they be held up by this pathetically small garrison. If necessary, Roksnit would bombard the world rather than waste any more crucial time and numbers on this planet.

But for now he was content to send more of the boyz in, they had been refocused and would not fail in their assault now. Still, the existence of this group was troubling. It was not in any of the Information the Citadel gave them. And there was no way of knowing if this was all there was of them, or if they were just a small outpost. But that didn't matter. He had a mission, and he would not fail.

The assault under his command became much more focused, and dangerous to the Spartan garrison. Within a half hour they had breached the defenses in multiple areas, forcing the defenders back into their maze like outpost. Then came the part every Ork loved, the chance to use their choppas in close quarters fighting.

It took an additional twenty minutes, but at last the final defenders fell. This victory was extremely pyric though, thirty million Orks dead, mainly due to the detonation of the Spartans' armors' reactors. But that wasn't the part that chilled the warboss. It was the final transmission from the world that caused that effect in him: "Ammunition depleted, enemy forces, overwhelming. Long live the Imperium, and death to the xenos invader."

He had seen desperate defenses before. Had commanded the breaking of those kinds of defenses more times than he could count, but this…This was different. This was not the last cry of some desperate beings doomed to serve the Big Boss. This was the roar of a predator. He rushed to inform his lord of this new development.

 **Citadel: Council Private Chambers: At the same time**

The councilors were nervous as they waited for Ambassador Udina. The human wasn't that intimidating on his own, soft spoken, mild mannered, he was the perfect politician. It was who he represented that was terrifying. The Imperium was still the most powerful force in the civilized galaxy, their war fleets could win against impossible odds, and their soldiers carry out assaults that conventional wisdom would call ill-advised at least.

And it was this power the Council needed to step in. For a week they had kept the existence of the Orks a secret, and it had taken all their governments powers to do so. But now they had no choice. If they did not get Imperial aid now, it was likely the Citadel Alliance would cease to exist within the month.

The Imperial ambassador to the citadel arrived a few minutes later, his posture and attitude relaxed. This was a good sign, in the opinion of Councilor Tevos. It meant that he would be more willing to listen rather than just jump to conclusions.

Oh how wrong she was. The meeting started out fine. He was receptive to requesting the Imperium send aid against this new threat, something he believed would happen…and then he asked what the threat was. When he was told it was the Orks, he got a blank look on his face. He cleared out his ear and then spoke: "I'm sorry; I had some crazy in my ear. Did you say Orks?"

When Spartus confirmed it, the diplomat sunk into the chair: "And how long have the Orks been around?" Valern gave the honest answer of a month and a week, causing the human to put his head in his hands and sigh: "Over an Emperor damned month. If we had been informed from the start, the Orks would have been crippled or destroyed by now…But as is the majority of our forces are tied up dealing with the western front. We can deploy forces from our garrisons and mobile forces on your border, but it will take time to relocate the troops from the west."

Tevos quirked an eye ridge, but it was Spartus who asked the question on all of their minds: "What's going on in the west that you can't deploy your main military? Is there something that we should know?"

Udina laughed: "Just like we should have known about the Orks? At the very least as soon as you could see you couldn't defeat them. But no matter; if you must know, since our founding we have been fighting a never ending war on the western frontier. Oh yes, the video games we exported? Those were based on the actual foes we face in the west. Save for one difference, in the game you can undertake diplomacy, in reality we cannot."

Spartus swallowed, he was a fan of the series in question, as were most Turians. As it gave them a chance to see the Imperial military in action and play around with their toys. But every councilor understood why they would not receive immediate aid, even if they didn't have to like it.

The Ambassador left shortly thereafter. He had a call to make.

 **Galaxy at large:  
** News of the Orks reemergence caught the Imperium flatfooted. Most of their combat forces were tied up in the west, dealing with another massive Mega Nid wave, and as such only the Eastern forces could be sent out to fight the Orks.

The total force sent numbered: one thousand warships, including four fleet carriers; three hundred thousand marines, including Shepard's ODST regiment; three million troopers; support elements and engineers. But no Legionaries or Spartans, they were all tied up fighting in the west.

Before the Eastern forces set out, the Emperor gave a speech that was broadcast to the entire galaxy: **"Sons and daughters of the Imperium. Today you march to war against an ancient foe we thought long dead. This is a result of the foolishness of the Citadel Council, who did not inform us in a timely manner about the return of these monsters.**

" **And they paid the price for their hubris. Three quarters of Asari and Salarian space has fallen under the iron boot of the Ork."** Here he paused for a second before continuing: **"Many of you may think this fate richly deserved, and that we should leave them to their fate. But I say to you now those people are SHORT SIGHTED FOOLS!**

" **If we abandon them to their fate, how long, my people, do you think it would be until the Orks knock on OUR door? An Orkish NATION strengthened by doubling their production capacity, and having the entire rest of the civilized galaxy as their slaves. We stand on the precipice of a cliff. On one side is the yawning chasm of oblivion, on the other the safety and security of our people and the galaxy"**

Once again the master of the Imperium paused, drawing in his listeners: **"I say we shall do our duty as the wiser and more powerful race, and protect our weaker neighbors. Not only because it will secure our people against the Orks. Not only because it makes strategic sense to do so. But because in this case it is the right thing to do, and to do less than this would stain the legacy of the Empire for ten thousand years.**

 **As such I decree that we shall wage war against the Orks. I declare a SECOND Great Crusade! We shall fight them in the void of space. We shall fight them on orbital stations. We shall fight them in the plains and fields. We shall fight them in the cities and towns. We shall NEVER surrender or falter! The IMPERIUM SHALL NEVER FALL, we shall fight on to our last breath, so that even ten million years from now, they shall say THIS was our FINEST hour!"**

As they left, morale was at an all-time high. The military intervention spread out along the line the Citadel system's defensive line. Of all the places in the line Shepard's unit was assigned to hold Thessalia. They were going into the fire, as to break Citadel resistance, the Orks had launched three main assaults. One was sent against the Citadel itself, one against Sur'kesh, and the largest of these invasion forces arranged against Thessalia.

 **Next time: The Battle of Thesselia Fields**

 **Codex: Heroes of the last war**

Much has been made of the heroes of the war versus Chaos. Many of the public wonder, where are they now, these heroes? While we cannot account for them all, we can account for many of them.

NOBLE TEAM: Currently undergoing retrofitting to Spartan V levels of augmentation. They had been in a now temporary retirement, but the vacation was over. In all likelihood they would be deployed to the west once they completed re augmentation.

TALDEER OF ULTWE: She is now married to the assassin LIIVI. They have a daughter together, Lofn, who is sixteen years old. Taldeer now serves as a training instructor to the Imperial psyker training academy.

ISHTA TALDEER: The pureblooded daughter of Taldeer is going through augmentation to become a Spartan V to stay close to her Fiancee Noble Six.

FIELD MARSHAL ROMEL: Is in command of the North Western sector, where his penchant for counter attacks is brutally punishing to any invader. To that end, the North Western Sector is often the hardest hit by the nids to tie up the forces up there.

GRAND ADMIRAL ROMEL: Serving as the commander for the navies in the North Western sector. His abilities to co-ordinate the vast fleet assigned to him has proven invaluable to his father's counter attacks.

THE TWO PATTONS: The two Pattons, father and son, are assigned to command the Western and South Western fronts respectively. Their aggressive use of armor to punish any breeches past the Trooper manned defenses has managed to break the nids time and time again.

CREED: In overall command of the Imperial Marine Corps. He rarely has a chance to command in the field. But when he does, he's still able to pull out the same tricks that made the followers of Chaos scream CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDD.

GENERAL PULLER: Training commandant of the Marine Corps. It is his task to ensure that any who join the Marines meet and surpass the standards of the Marines of old. It is a task he performs with gusto, and great alacrity. It is through his efforts that the Marines are consistently turning out fighting men able to outfight any force in the galaxy save for other Imperial forces, though don't tell him that, or he'll chew you out for counting out the Corps.  
SIERRA 117: Now the overall commander of the Spartan Initiative. John still managed to get himself into combat situations despite his high rank. Due to advances in technology allowing AI organic bodies, he has married former UNSC AI Cortana. Rumor has it they have a child on the way.

GABRIEL ANGELOS: Legion Commander of the Thousand Sons. Angelos has his work cut out separating the reformed Legio from its predecessor's legacy. But he has done an admirable job so far, and the Sons are becoming some of the most trusted battle psykers in the Imperial Legions.

 **Codex: The failure of Imperial Intelligence**

When the Orks were revealed, Imperial Intelligence scrambled to find out how the Citadel managed to hide such an important fact from them. They had thoroughly compromised all current Citadel technology databanks. The Daltrasses couldn't even take a shit without them knowing it.

So how had this evaded their notice? The answer was quite simple, everything was communicated face to face about the Orks. Or through old channels that had not seen use for centuries. It was almost amusing how well the old ways were able to flummox the most technologically advanced nation in the galaxy.

But Imperial Intelligence was going to have to step up their game if they weren't going to get blindsided again.

 **Codex: The Ork Blitz**

The Ork assault on the Citadel was a textbook example of a well-executed surprise attack and proper use of the overwhelming numbers available to the attacker.

The campaign's opening week was virtually flawless in execution. Billions upon billions of greenskins poured out of the galactic North, what used to be the Terminus. Within seconds the border defenses had crumbled and the Orks were pushing into Citadel territory.

System after system fell to the advancing Orkish tide, no matter what defense was mounted the Orks would just throw more at it until the defenders were all dead. Or in some cases they would simply bombard the world into submission.

It was a strategy that played well with the key strengths of the Orkish horde; vast numbers and overwhelming firepower. Trying to wield this force in any other way than it was utilized would not get the most out of their innate advantages, or the ones The Big Boss arranged.

Deep in Ork occupied territory were worlds dedicated to producing new equipment on mass, everything from Shootas to Gorknoughts and Great Gargants. These worlds were mostly populated by Gretchen and Meks, though a growing slave populace also contributed to the production of new equipment.

There were worlds were Drill Nobs forged the boys from a blunt instrument into a sharp and dangerous weapon. Casualty rates on these training worlds were high, with only one in ten Orks graduating, but it produced a superior ork. This ensured a constant supply of Orks for conquest.

Also among those worlds were ones that produced food for the Orkoid Empire, granted it was mainly funguses and other primitive forms of Ork life, but it still kept the war machine moving. Not since the Beasts who invaded the Imperium in the days of old have the Orks been this organized, and it will be hard to dislodge them from the seat of their power.

 **Codex: Generation Two Primarchs?**

Off and on over the years there have been rumors that Empress Isha has been pregnant. But it has never been substantiated or proven. Even so, the rumors persist.

Though if they are true, why not reveal it to the Imperium? It would be met with celebration and joy after all.

There is a potential reason for this that makes logical sense. The Primarchs of old were meant as the warlords of the Imperium, and were the Emperor's flesh and blood. There is a strong possibility that the Emperor is recreating the Primarchs the old fashioned way.

At any rate until the Emperor reveals if he is there is no way to truly know...

Review please and thank you


	13. The Battle of Thessia Fields

**AN:** Sorry I took so long folks. Let's see what you guys felt like mentioning to me. "Cosmicsafe74," Yeah the Citadel is in a catch twenty two here…Which is another reason I didn't expand the timeline out like some people suggest, _as if I did the Imperium would dominate the galaxy and they wouldn't have to play nice_. "SPARTAN-626," they will never run out of Orks. "ShadowCub," not quite, you'll see when the time comes. " ," getting shot by an ork weapon is like getting shot with a .75 Caliber weapon, really fucking dangerous. Citadel shields can absorb maybe one or two…but not five being shot simultaneously at them…Never mind their energy guns and melee weapons. "last admiral," I did already show what Cain and Vail were up to, along with Jurgen, over the last few chapters so I didn't see the need. Anyways let's get started.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **The Battle of Thessia Fields**

 **Thessia, Day of the Ork Invasion:**

The Imperial Corps deployed to the Asari capital arrived with a lot of fanfare and celebration on the part of the Asari. While the command elements had to play politician and schmooze, the rest of them got to work. They had orders to turn the world and its system into a stronghold, and the means to do so.

The engineers set up factories to produce Trooper Mk III reinforcements as well as started to assemble the ground defenses. The plan for the ground was to give each Asari city a one hundred meter tall wall with a fifty meter thickness as a start. The walls would have millions of unmanned weapon emplacements for use against the Orks who landed.

This would be formidable on its own, but bunker complexes were built beyond the walls, all automated. And inside the buildings were reinforced for if the walls were breached, and secondary as well as tertiary ones of equal strength were assembled behind the first wall. And energy shields were assembled to prevent orbital bombardment of the planet by the Orks.

In orbit fifty battle stations around the same size as the Phalanx were built around the planet, along with two the size of moons. There were plans for more defenses to be made, but those plans were left unfulfilled. The Greenskins arrived in force an hour after the Imperials arrived.

This would be the first time in decades the Imperium had faced Orks in battle, and the first time these Orks fought the Imperial Navy.

 **Orbit:**

Warboss Gutslasha's warband was the first to arrive in system. His fleet of three hundred Kruiser weight and larger ships primary goal was to secure orbital superiority. He had a quartet of fifty kilometer long Kill Kruisers as his heavy hitters. In the hulls of his warships, if he was able to land, were over three million Ork Boy Shock Troopers, thousands of tanks and aircraft, tens of thousands of apcs, and thousands of gunships. It was a force to be reckoned with.

The defenses they expected around the Asari homeworld would have been easy prey for such a force usually…But as Gutslasha saw now, it would not be so easy. "OYE! DA ZOG'S ALL DIS?" The warboss bellowed as he saw the unknowns in the system. They had expected Asari and Citadel forces…Not an unknown force.

The sensor boy reported: "Dere's a lot o new contacts we neva seen before boss. Twenty fiove ships registering as 'Loight Kruisers,' ten as full on 'Kruisers,' foive 'Kill Kruisers', and two 'Supa Dreadnoughts.' We're also pickken up a buncha stashions in the area!"

The warboss frowned; this was not a force that Da Big Boss had expected. He had a feeling in his gut that this was going to be like the assault on that unmapped system that resulted in an unacceptable delay. Still though, he ordered his ships to engage.

The Ork Kruisers closed the distance, and started to take massed fire from the expected Citadel Alliance forces, a few ships went down under the withering barrage, but it was within expected numbers. But then globules of plasma streaked out and struck the Orkoid ships, and vaporized dozens of ships with each salvo.

Gutslasha sucked in a breath when he saw that: "Zoggin hell, plasma weapons. Honest ta gork plasma weapons. I thought we had left dat shit behind back home." The ork was speechless. Plasma weaponry was a favored weapon of their old foe that had forced them to retreat…And now these new comers used it, they were a threat to Ork existence, and not to be tolerated.

The Warboss bellowed as loud as he could into the fleet coms: "LISTEN UP YA GITS! DESE CITADEL PANZIES HAVE SOME KOIND OF ALLY WE NEVA KNEW ABOUT! AND DEY USE PLASMA! IT IS OUR DUTY TA CRUSH DEM NOW, I'M SENDIN A MESSAGE TO DA BIG BOSS SO HE KNOWS ABOUT DIS, EVEN IF WE DIE, WE WIN! NOW COME ON YA GITS! DO YA WANNA LIVE FEREVA? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!"

The warcry of the WAAGh galvanized the boys, their ships' speeds increased by three fold and they rapidly closed the distance. As they did Gutslasha sent out a transmission to the other Ork forces: "Dey have plasma." Seconds before his ship was vaporized by Imperial plasma fire.

The transmission however was received. Soon, thousands of ships more than had been ear marked for this operation poured in. Their sheer numbers and mass of fire power began to take its toll, but they lost extraordinary casualties to do so.

 **Unnamed System nearby: Daedulus Forge**

A young looking woman sat on a command dais, her eyes closed as if she was deep in thought, but the two people with her knew better. Tech Priestess Persephone was coordinating the automated ships in the Thesaian system with her implants. So far the drone warships had suffered twenty five percent casualties to the Orks, but she had yet to deploy all the tricks up her sleeves.

With but a thought, the two moon sized stations started to churn out Battle Cruisers and bigger classes. The ships already on the line started to deploy Mobile Suits and Fighters. The superiority in numbers the Orks had fluctuated back and forth. But it was manageable. At least it was until fifteen two hundred kilometer warships arrived.

These Ork warships were of staggering power, and between them shattered the Citadel forces and the majority of the Imperial defenses before being destroyed by concentrated beam and plasma fired. And yet still the Orks came on. By their thousands and tens of thousands…The situation in orbit was untenable.

Soon Battlestation Mala, the one in the eastern hemisphere, fell to the Orks. But it cost them a full ten thousand warships to do so. Without that defensive satellite, the rest of the line fell swiftly. It was frustrating to Persephone, if the Orks had not arrived so soon, the entire system could have been made a death trap for the greenskins.

Still though, she was pleased. Her actions controlling the drone ships and stations bought the defenders on the ground another two hours to prepare, and cost the lives of over a billion Orks. Such a good job deserved a reward, and luckily her husband and her fellow wife were assigned to her ship…So she had something to do after transmitting the after action report on the space battle…Which she did with a single thought.

Imperial losses in space: zero organics, one thousand drone ships of various classes, fifty Cadwell class Defense Stations, and two Solomon Class Battlestations. Citadel losses: one million of various races, one thousand frigates, five hundred destroyers, two hundred fifty cruisers, and one hundred dreadnoughts. Ork losses: _Incalculable numbers of ground troops,_ close to a million warships of various classes.

End result: Pyric Ork victory in space. Two _**HOURS**_ gained for the ground defense to prepare.

 **Thessia: Ground Side**

Those two hours were capitalized on. Most of the gaps in the defenses were plugged and what was already there reinforced. Killing grounds were made with obvious landing zones. It was the standard doctrinal response to Ork landings that Creed had developed, meet an 'unstoppable' force with an immovable object and enough firepower to make even the largest attack falter.

The battle of Thessia would be the first true test of this doctrine. And it went well at first. The orks tried dozens of times to land in the killing grounds, relying on numbers to bust through. Every time the majority of the Roks were blasted out of the sky by anti orbital guns and anti air, the surviving Orks would number perhaps a couple hundred thousand per wave.

Normally this would be seen as a dangerous foe. But presighted automated artillery could hit the landing zones and paths out of there from three hundred kilometers away with pin point accuracy. Minefields would spontaneously appear and decimate any Orkish column advancing into their deadly radius. And automated bunkers and turrets would hold up advances and do tremendous damage.

For two days that was the pattern. The Orks would attack in ever increasing numbers, throwing more and more boys into the grinder. Meanwhile the Imperials would reply with overwhelming firepower. During the opening days, contact with the outside galaxy was cut off by the invaders, they would be on their own for now.

Just as the battle was starting to escalate…

 **The Citadel: Garrus Vakarian**

C-sec Detective Garrus Vakarian frowned as he watched the Citadel News Network. It had been over a week since the Orks and Citadel had gone to war, and the Citadel was losing the war overall. The assault on the Salarian homeworld had been repelled easily by the Imperium, and there was talk of using that success to reclaim the remainder of Salarian space.

But there was no news of the assault on Thessia. The last word had been that the Ork ground assaults had been unsuccessful. But that had been over thirty six hours ago, and speculation was rampant. Did the defenders of the Asari world hold out still? Did the savage Greenskins come out victorious in the end?

It was a frustrating state of affairs. And one he had no way to affect here, all he could do was help keep the peace on the Citadel, and keep his word to a VERY scary Saren. The man was the definition of 'over protective parent.' If over protective parents had Aquila Industries firearms and the legal leeway to kill whoever they saw fit and get away with it.

Still, he and Arcina didn't hold how scary Saren was against Laria. She was impossible to get mad at it seemed…And could get away with nearly anything. The eldest child of the specter was intelligent, and was easily able to grasp whatever was put in her lap…for example hacking and marksmanship. She was already fantastic at both, on top of keeping up with her usual studies.

With that thought, Garrus turned off the news, and finished his coffee before heading off to work on the newest case that had crossed his desk. Someone was growing organs illegally, and selling them on the Black Market. It was his job to find out who is behind it.

 **Thessia: Spec Ops Lt Derzgher**

Drezgher silently crept through the underbrush; his purple paint doing its job of making him as 'steafy' as he and his mob closed on their target. The Ork was a special forces Boy, a relatively novel concept in this day. Spec Ops Boys were the best of the best in their field, given kommando training and additional training in every manner of Ork Tekeology.

Now they had been deployed to Thessia. The last few days of attacks were merely meant for one purpose, to distract the defenders and gain intel on where their defenses were powered from. It had taken more waves that expected, but they finally had a lock on the power grids outside of the cities, knock those out, and the guns would go dark. That was the theory at any rate, and Derzgher was never one for theory. It had a way of being proven wrong. But a foot of sharpened titanium can never be disproved.

They had dropped from orbit in a 'stealf goonship,' read a purple painted gunship, and inserted ten klicks south of the objective, but now they were finally there after nearly three hours of travel on foot. He activated his 'seein googles' and took a looksee at the defenses.

The newcomers were here, but not many. Most of the defenders were Asari in that 'Aquula Inoostries' gear that had given the Orks so much trouble before. Where a normal citadel side arm would find it nigh impossible to penetrate fifty millimeters of Orkish personal armor, an Aquila one would do the job in as few as one and as many as ten depending on the 'calibur.'

But the three soldiers standing around that WEREN'T Asari wore armor that a Mech Boy would happily kill thousands to get ahold of to study. Their weapons also were impossibly high tech looking, he was betting on plasma, and that just wasn't zogging fair. They brought sluggas and shootas, why couldn't their foes fight fair and bring their own projectoile weapons?

Derzgher checked his kronomeetor, it was thirty seconds before the strike was to launch. The plan was to hit each of the power stations simultaneously, destroying them and paving the way for a sudden ground assault that would secure a boot hold on the planet. He swiftly gestured for his Spec Ops Boyz to take position.

Almost as soon as the heavy shootas were set up, it was time to go. He took a deep breath, and let out a bellow: "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" With that battle was joined.

It was a chaotic mess, shoota rounds flew into the defenses knocking around or killing Asari and throwing them into a panic. But return fire came from the three unknowns, energy projectiles that seared through armor and killed in a single hit, the rounds moved too fast to be conventional plasma…And the speed and accuracy of the shots was unnatural.

He ducked behind a rock just barely in enough time to dodge a globule that soared where his head was. Prompting a gulp from the ork: _"These boys weren't mucking about."_ He poked his shoota around the rock and sprayed down range, he heard the projectiles impact an energy shield…and then his gun melted from a direct hit.

He cursed as he dropped the slagged gun before it melted on his hands, and threw his stikk bombs into the power generator area, hoping to trigger a larger explosion. Gork was on his side, and the bomb detonated, causing a few nearby power pylons to detonate…in plasma bursts. He shivered when he saw that, these freaks were using plasma for their power plants, which was sickening.

But still, the detonation turned the tide. Two of the unknowns were engulfed in the explosion and erased from existence with the high yield plasma eradicating them. The last unknown continued fighting, its supremely accurate fire continued to scythe down Ork after Ork, even as the last Asari died it kept fighting.

A Tank Busta charged the defender, and had his torso evaporated by the plasma fire. The remaining Spec Ops Orks tried to put down the unknown, but nothing phased it. Even when its shield finally fell and the left arm was blown off it kept fighting. It would almost be commendable, if the Lt hadn't seen the sparking and metal innards. They were fighting Mork be damned robots.

This enraged Drezgher beyond all comprehension, and he charged with his 'Kommando Choppa.' The machine whirled to blow him away, but the rotation of the torso section was slowed by several heavy shoota rounds. With a howl he set to work, soon the machine was in pieces at his feet, spraying him with oil and other liquids from the machine's operating system.

But before he could progress any farther, the remaining arm latched itself onto his neck. He tried to dislodge it as his airway collapsed…but to no avail. Even his Boyz trying to remove it only made the arm dig in deeper. In the end Drezgher died as the robot's arm crushed his windpipe completely.

However, his team finished the job after he died. At 8:00 Terran time, 24:00 Local, the power plants were blown, and the Ork Invasion began in earnest.

 **Thessia: General POV**

With the Orks landing in force and destroying the defenses, it was clear to the defenders that phase one of the battle plan had failed. But the Orks would still have to break into the cities, which had been fortified even more over the preceding days.

Moral was high despite the heavy casualties among the Citadel defenders, as the Imperials more than made up for any shortcomings. They were like the heroes of Asari legend, Athame's Guardians: inexhaustible, unyielding, and never surrendering.

The Imperial forces, with the defenses made as in depth as possible, made several broadcast centers for Citadel news networks. Reports were important to the moral off world, and a great propaganda boost to keep the flagging Citadel in the war.

The first transmission from Thessia was on the third day of battle. It was short, and to the point. "Thessia stands." That simple message accompanied by footage of Imperial and Asari forces fighting against the Orks was a pure shot of adrenaline, and the perfect propaganda tool for the Citadel.

"Thessia stands, are you doing your part?" This was one of the most important propaganda messages that CNN put out for the Council, and shamed those who had so far stayed out of the war effort into joining up or providing financial aid.

But while that did so much for the Citadel alliance, the battle of Thessia continued.

 **Citadel Stealth Recon Ship, The Watchful Eye: Thessia: Saren Areterus, one day later**

Saren stood on the bridge of the Eye and watched the Orkoid reinforcements arrive to the siege. Every hour, a new horde of transports appeared. These convoys usually numbered around one hundred ships at a length of twelve kilometers long.

Estimates of ground troops and materials deployed with every convoy were being low balled at six million more Orks, forty billion tons of war materiel, and fifty thousand armored vehicles of various types.

It was obscene. This rate of production was unthinkable to the Citadel. As was the replacement rate. Saren feared that Thessia's defenders would be ground to dust long before the Imperium could mount their counter attack.

The Turian growled as he watches the Orks deploy to the surface. All of this death and destruction could have been avoided if the Council had listened. But no, they saw an opportunity for an edge over the Imperium. And now the galaxy paid the price.

 **Jump off Point Delta: Imperial Space: Kaiden Alenko: The next day**

Master Sergeant Alenko sat in his platoon's command IFV, a Scorpion II. He was watching the news reports. _"Thessia stands indeed."_ He thought with a chuckle. The ODST and Marines deployed to the Asari Homeworld were giving the Orks absolute hell.

So far not a single city had been breached, and the Orks were losing tens of thousands to advance even a single meter of ground. The drones in space had been disappointing, granted though the commander of that sector hadn't managed to reach critical mass before the Orks hit, unlike the Salarian homeworld.

Which lead into a minor gripe of his with the Citadel News Network, their inconsistent reporting. Sure, the Asari homeworld was holding up AMAZINGLY well right now, but they had been utterly repulsed from the Salarian homeworld. And the expected attack on the Citadel never came because of Thessia.

Call him an old fashioned man, but he thought that mentioning the victories in Salarian space would do more for moral than constantly bringing up the grinding war in Asari space. But hey, he didn't make the rules, he just fought to protect civilized space.

 **The Citadel: Chora's Den: Wrex, several hours that same day**

Wrex sat in the comfortable seats in the Imperial ran bar, and drank imported Rycol ice cold by the pint. Say what you will about Imperial diplomatic niceties, but they knew how to run a bar. The food was cheap and filling, the atmosphere wasn't half bad, and the alcohol was always for sale provided you had the credits.

But his mind was elsewhere than his drink. Chora's Den was one of the few bars in the Citadel you could get reliable access to Imperial News outlets, and they were a damned sight more reliable than CNN. The current topic of debate was once again Thessia.

This wasn't a surprise, it was on every channel. But unlike the citadel news networks, which focused on the emotional side, the Imperials analyzed the war in its entirety and the effect the campaign for the Asari homeworld would have on it.

Apparently the green bastards had pushed deep into Asari Space, and set a thirty system deep perimeter around their capital. For the Citadel, to breach such a defense would eat ALL their resources. Wrex knew that, and so did the talking heads, which put them above regular reporters as far as he was concerned.

Their current angle was how to best relieve it. Drop in right on the system with overwhelming force, and then push out while assaulting from the perimeter? Swing from Salarian Space and pincer the Orks? Or meet them head on in battle? These were the ones he remembered and thought had the best chance of working.

While his days as clan leader were at an end temporarily, he still had a keen strategic mind, and pondered this question. Well, that, and what bar food to order next. Those "Barbeque Wings" sounded interesting.

 **Thessia: Tank Nob Marveen: Two Days Later**

Marveen sat in the turret of his super heavy tank and watched the artillery shell the capital city of Thessia. For the past forty eight hours, they had bombarded the city, and it seemed like the shield was starting to break.

Of course that was to be expected wasn't it? They had assembled over two hundred thousand siege guns, not to mention all the orbital support. It was just a matter of time now. And then he and his battle tested tank would be in the thick of the action.

His super heavy, The Fist of Gork, was an older model of tank. It was covered in four hundred millimeters of metal, with a three hundred millimeter smoothbore gun in the turret. Also in the turret was a coaxial one fifty chain gun, and in the hull were multiple eighty millimeter defensive guns. It was a symbol of the strength that brought the Orks to the new galaxy, and would lead the assault when the time came.

But the Nob would wait till it was time. He was not eager to run into plasma fire again. The last time his unit had fought plasma users his tank had nearly been slagged, which was unacceptable to any tanker. Let alone an Orkish one who was by trade super attached to his armored beast.

The shield cracked at that moment, and then shattered…before being replaced with a new shield, much to his disappointment. Still though, he reflected with a sigh, more artillery was being brought in, as were more warships. Eventually one of the cities would be broken into. And then, the real scrap could begin.

 **Hell's Gate System: Imperial Intelligence Cell CERBERUS base: Operative Lawson, two hours later**

Miranda slowly drank her Terran coffee as she read through the reports. The holding force was doing magnificently all things considered. They were outnumbered at least one thousand to one, but their technological edge allowed them to pull out victories all across the board.

Salarian space had been all but retaken already. And the rebuilding of their infrastructure was going well, soon the Xenos would be back to their strength from before the Orks attacked. This was both good and bad in the eyes of Cerberus, a cell created to monitor the Citadel section of space and beyond.

On the plus side if the Salarians regained their former strength, it would be extra guns and bodies on the line, saving Imperial lives in the short term against the Orks. It would also deplete the Salarians further, making them more vulnerable to invasion from the Imperium if need be. Though she doubted that would be needed. After all, they would be dependent on Imperial Technology and power…and as the heroes of the war against the Orks, well that would gain a lot of clout in the Citadel.

The downside of one of the pillars of the Citadel regaining their strength was that if they studied the process the Imperium used they could reverse engineer it, and jump start their stagnant technology the Imperium would no longer be the biggest fish in the ocean. This was seen as unlikely, but if they did try they can contingencies in play to destroy any Citadel made quantum lathes.

Finishing the coffee, she switched to studying dossiers that had been placed on her desk. There were three piles. One for recruitment into Cerberus, either in the intelligence arm or the military one, there were a few promising candidates in this batch. Of note were Dr Archer, a scientist specializing in theoretical future technology and xenopsychology, two things that Cerberus might need in the future. Also in this pile was a Lt Taylor, an Imperial Navy PJ officer, he had a dozen missions under his belt both in the west and east, and was very effective at his job.

The second pile was less interesting. It was potential specter candidates. She could already tell from how the Council acted that everyone in this list was not going to make it into the specters. They all lacked one thing or another, and that would cause them to flunk at some point.

However, the third pile was new. It only had one dossier. The heading on it marked it as a candidate for BOTH simultaneously. Naturally curious she read it; after all it takes a special person to have caught the recruitment officer's eyes for both. And special they were. She immediately agreed to the assessment, and added her own that his colleagues should be brought into the fold as well if they were serious about recruiting him.

 **Salarian Space: Rothalan System: Ashley Williams: the next day**

Ashley sat in a recently rebuilt barracks, taking some rest before the next deployment. In the week since the Imperial Army of the East was deployed to fight the Orks they had regained vast swathes of Citadel Alliance territory. The Salarians and other Xenos they fought alongside were ecstatic and acted like the war was already over.

But her? She was focused on writing in her war journal, and composing her thoughts for calling home…as well as letting her mind wander to how Shepard was doing. Oh sure, she had confidence in his skills, and the scattered reports coming out of the battle were positive…but she was worried for reasons she couldn't pinpoint.

Her mind tried to rationalize it as being worried about her best friend. But Tali was her best female friend, and Ashley wasn't as worried about her. It was strange and confusing to the young woman. Before she could think on it more there were cries of shock and denial from downstairs.

She sprang up and headed downstairs to look. A TV was playing news reports, and it was about Thessia…The Orks had broken into a few of the cities. Heavy fighting was going on, but the Orks were gaining ground. The garrison forces were doing their best to evac the civies, but it was slow going.

 **Thessia: Liara T'Soni: Three hours later**

Liara sat on the last tram out of Telerasia city. Her armor caked in grime and fire arm residue. When the Orks landed she signed up for the defensive forces, against her mother's wishes. The Imperials who equipped her sent her to Telerasia, it had been in a quite sector at the time.

At times she had almost been able to believe there was no war going on, such was the might of the defenses the Imperium had erected. But now she was evacuating with the last fifty thousand other Asari the Imperial Marines had managed to get to the main terminal, and she knew why her mother did not want her to join the defense forces…she was not ready…Nor were many others from the conversations on the train, though only the words of the more regular forces mattered.

From what little she caught of the conversation around the car, the greenskins had managed to infiltrate the city and destroy the shield generators simultaneously. This led to the collapse of the defenses as the Ork artillery and orbital forces could blow massive holes in the fortifications, and through those holes poured millions of Orks.

The young Asari had done her duty though, as the kill counter in her armor cheerfully informed her. By the time she had been evac'd she had killed two hundred Orks. But it wasn't enough to stop the fall of the doomed city. She had seen things that would haunt her dreams for years to come during that battle.

Ork warriors clad in thick armor shrugging off government issue Mass Accelerator fire, but firing terrifyingly effective slug throwers that would butcher whole squads of regulars in a twenty second burst in return. Shock troopers entering melee and killing with sickening glee, their knives running purple with Asari blood as they sliced easily through armor and flesh alike.

But she also saw moments of heroics, such as the last stand of the Marine squadron holding the station even as the last train pulled away. Thirteen soldiers in power armor versus millions of green horrors trying to break in. Their weapons killed with every pull of the trigger, or mortally wounded at least. Shoulder to shoulder they stood at the bottom of the stairs, creating a killzone that the Orks would not easily bypass.

As soon as the train was away, they blew up the tunnels, so that the Orks could not follow easily. The last sight she had of the valiant members of the 892nd was of them firing on two Ork walkers stomping down the stairs, and destroying them both.

Unconsciously she started to sing the song they had as they made their last stand: "Men of Harlech stop your dreaming…Can't you see their spear points gleaming…See their warrior's pennants streaming…To this battle field…"

So lost in her own world was she that she didn't notice that all chatter in the train had ceased. Soon one voice after another joined her in singing the song. However as the last verse was sung she realized it; and it solidified a single thought in her mind: _"This is not over. Not by a long shot. We will only surrender Thessia when the last Asari is dead, and the last Imperial warship lies a smoking ruin."_

History would remember this as the start of the darkest days of the battle for Thessia, but it would also be remembered as the day the Asari people finally started to awaken from their self-imposed torpor. The old generation had led to the near destruction of their people, those young maidens who survived the battle would form a new more militant faction that sought closer union with the Imperium. But that is a matter for later.

 **Imperial Space: Tali: A week and a half later**

Tali Zorah sighed as her stealth corvette pulled into the docks. She had cut her pilgrimage short with the news of war, and had been supplying weapons and armor to resistance forces that she could find behind Ork lines. She had no idea how effective her efforts were, but it was time to return to full active duty for now.

The news from Thessia had grown increasingly grim over the past week and a half. City after city had fallen to the Orks, and the Imperial expeditionary force deployed to the planet had suffered fifty percent casualties while evacuating the populace. Not to mention the billions of dead Asari who fell on their homeworld. The sole comfort militarily, no matter how small it was, was that the Greenskins were suffering even more horrendous casualties taking the planet.

On a personal level, Shepard had not been reported KIA yet. Which greatly relieved her, she knew Michael would not die without a fight. The Bo'shet would probably take a whole planet down with him when he finally did die, it was a thought that briefly lightened her mood and lessened her worries. But she had to come back to reality as she reported back into her ODST division.

The greenskins had expanded their cordon by twenty more systems in depth. It made an already difficult assault even more dangerous. It was almost enough to drive a Quarian to drink. Though she finally also received the first good piece of news all month, the Imperium was almost ready to launch the counter attack. Another forty eight hours and they would finally begin driving the Orks back.

And so she, like many others, settled in to wait…and she prayed that Shepard would still be alive when the relief force arrived at Thessia.

 **General POV: The next four days**

The next four days saw the fall of all but the capital city on Thessia. It seemed once the Orks knew how to bring down one defense net, they could do the same to any of the others. To be fair to the Imperials, there wasn't much they could to modify the defenses they set up, as the Asari Cities were already jam packed.

By this point in time, of the ten thousand marines and ODST deployed, only one thousand Imperials remained on Thessia, supported by at most five hundred thousand TRAINED Asari soldiers and defenders. The rest of the world's populace was being run through basic martial abilities, but at best they were untrained militia by the standards of the Empire.

Still, their numbers would make up for it in the coming days. There was nowhere else to retreat. It was either fight and either win or die, or don't and certainly lose. Thankfully for the Asari Thessia's population chose to fight alongside the thousand organic Imperials left.

 **Thessia surface: Day the shield breaks: Shocktroopa Grimstabba**

Gimstabba waited impatiently for his APC to deposit him and the rest of the platoon into the last bastion of resistence. It had been a good WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH on this world. The blueies had put up a good scrap, as had the cheating plasma using gits. But now it was just a matter o time before the Orks moved on to the next battlefield.

The APC shook as a mass accelerator round passed by and smashed the Kolonel's APC to bits. Much to the amusement of the Orks in his APC, none of the boys had liked da Kolonel that much anyways. The git always tried to steal their glory or make them learn more advanced 'tactiks' then just rush forward and use their weapons to kill whatever wasn't Orky.

That was another advantage these blueies had over those out in what was now da Khanate. Those blueies and the like had had much worse weapons. A boy could stand infront of three platoons shooting them with their pathetic dakka firers, and not be scratched after a half hour of firing. By GORK was that boring, there was no CHALLENGE no real scrap to be had.

But as the doors to his vehicle opened, he was reaffirmed in the knowledge that this was a REAL scrap. The breaches into the city were defended by the plasma nuts metal boys, and hundreds of blueies firing their weapons into the deployment zone.

Hundreds of Boys fell every second, but that was fine in Grimstabba's opinion. Hadn't been Warboss Enry da Sexth that said that da fewer boyz da more glory was had by all, not to mention the more loot? He reflected on the wisdom of that statement as he sprayed a blueie with his shoota, riddling her form with holes in short order.

Yes, he decided as he changed targets to a metal boy, Enry had had it right. But he would add the addendum that the fewer boys, the more scrapping was had by those there. Which was more important than glory in the eyes of most Orks, the metal boy finally dropped after emptying forty seconds of rounds into him.

The Shocktroopa took a second to look around as he advanced spraying another blueie with rounds. The assault was making headways into this breach; they had advanced three hundred meters in every direction from the initial breach. This meant that reinforcements would be incoming soon, including armor, he knew that The Fist of Gork's armored regiment was nearby and he hopped that he would get to see that old boy in action.

The rumbling of tracks two minutes later, as he was clearing a fortified building, announced the arrival of the tanks. He grinned as he caught sight of the old Fist. The super heavy brought its main gun to bear on an unseen target, and fired. The blast and sheer concussive force from the cannon firing broke the glass in the skyscraper, and created a ringing in his ears he would not have traded for a mountain of loot…maybe.

Though that elation turned to rage when lances of, what he assumed to be, plasma sheared out from a spot hidden from his line of sight. The old tank didn't stand a chance, its metal hull melting into slag, killing or trapping the crew inside in an immovable wreck. The Shocktroopa was about to go looking for the shooter when it came stomping out of a side street.

Standing eighteen meters tall, and carrying a massive shoota in its hands, it was green with a single crimson eye. Emblazed across its chest plate was a double headed bird of some sort, and at its waist was what looked like a giant choppa of some sort. It made him conflicted. Except for the bird it looked down right ORKY, but then it fired its shoota, and spat golden yellow 'plasma' at the armored column, as did five others that joined it.

Before he could work out what to do next, a barrage of shells smashed into the area from orbit, flattening the Mobile Suits, and the buildings around the breach. The Warlord had decided that orbital firepower was the only way to break the defenders giant walkers. Though this would serve as small comfort for the dead orks killed in the bombardment, dying in battle was one thing…but to friendly fire? That was downright UNORKY.

 **The City of Relia: Three Days Later: Primary Temple to Athame: Shepard**

Michael Shepard fired his weapon's LMG configuration down the stairs to cover the retreat of another desperate band of Asari soldiers. He and his squad had been forced back to the primary temple three hours ago, and had dug in as much as possible.

Cover, small shields, portable AA, auto turrets…everything a defender might need, they had put in place. And yet it still might not be enough. His father had told him of the Orks, or at least his spirt contained in a wraithbone body did, but it had not prepared him for the sheer overwhelming numbers they would bring to bear.

His father had described a storm, vast but not without end and easy to break. This was an ocean. They were unending, unstoppable, and unbreakable; albeit the individual Ork was reassuringly mortal, as he proved once again by scything a group down with plasma rounds.

The IFF in his helmet identified the lead Asari in the group as Corporal Liara T'soni, he raised an eyebrow at that. The rich kid of one of the most important Asari politicians on the frontline? It was surprising, but it was worth a bit of respect at least.

The cry of WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH snapped him back to reality, and he resumed firing. Each plasma glob that exited his gun took down an Ork. Of course this wasn't anything special, the Primary Temple had only one narrow stairway, and with the sheer number of green skins attacking he would have to try to miss.

Of course he wasn't stupid enough to do that on purpose. So he continued firing down range. And they kept coming. The stairs were covered in dead twenty bodies thick in some places. But it didn't go all the defenders way. Of the ten ODST in his unit deployed to the stairs, including himself, only four were left eight hours after they took position, the Asari casualties had dropped their numbers down from five hundred down to one hundred.

As he changed out barrels during a lull in the fighting he looked to the soldier next to him. To his surprise it was the young T'Soni. Still standing, and still fighting. But he had to ask: "You doing alright there T'soni?" It was a stupid question, sure, but it had to be asked.

The Asari was quiet for a minute: "Over the past week or so I have seen more death and destruction then I ever imagined possible. I have seen heroes make last stands, and die pointlessly. So no, I do not think I'm alright. Ask me after the Orks are gone, and I may have a different answer."

Shepard chuckled: "I'll hold you to that." He knew it was probably all bravado. Everyone planet side knew they were probably doomed. The communications to the outside world had been cut off two days ago, and with all the combat he doubted anyone thought Thessia still had defenders.

SOP in scenarios like this, was to purge the planet. He expected that any minute now. But even so, he kept quiet, as did the other ODST. There was no reason to break the Asari moral, besides it was better they die on their feet then succumb to despair.

At that point, nine hours into that last stand, an Ork boss came forward: "DEFENDURS OF DA TEMPUL, YOU HAVE FOUGHT WELL. BUT NOW IT'Z OVA, SURRENDER AND YOUR LOIVES WILL BE SPARED. KEEP FOIGHTEN US AN…" The consequences were never made known. Shepard riddled him with plasma.

"Surrender? Hell. We just got here. And we have not even BEGUN to fight." His declaration was back up by cheers of agreement from the rest of the defenders. The Orks hesitated…But that was all that was needed. Drop pods of an off white color started to rain down on the beleaguered planet.

Several landed near the temple, one right in front of the defenders position. Out came four Terminators, one bearing the mark of a captain: "Well said Shepard. It's determination like that which built the empire. And it will maintain it for thousands of years to come. But for now relax, and let us handle these scum."

The tide had irrevocably turned in favor of the Imperium.

 **Next time: The Wolf HOWLS**

Codex: The Legacy Battle of Thessia Part 1: The Battle of Thessia was one of those seminal moments that defined the next few decades. Until then the Asari had been more diplomatically focused, their superior technology compared to the rest of the Citadel going unused, as was their good relations with the Imperium.

But after the battle, the Asari began to rebuild. The younger generation began to speak loudly and vehemently against the passivity of the past, the maidens who had served on the frontline were the core of this new political movement. Their rhetoric started to sway the older members of their race, especially those who had lost daughters in the war.

With politics pushing for a more militarized Asari Republic, industry followed. Rebuilt by the Imperium, the Asari began to produce next generation Aquilia industries tech under license. It was a technicality of course, as the Imperial companies didn't care much for Citadel Credits, so they basically gave the blueprints away for free.

With their forces modernized, and politics changed, the Asari cozied up to the Imperium. Imperial instructors were inserted into Asari academies and training camps, where they began to bring them up to standard. Asari space was also the first to receive multiple layers of Imperial made defenses on their border with the Orks.

In the end the Battle of Thessia, while devastating, was the dawn of a new era in Imperial – Citadel relations.

Codex: Cerberus: Goals and Organization: Cerberus is an Imperial Intelligence division that is divided into many smaller cells. Their primary goal is the promotion of Imperial interests in the Eastern regions, through whatever means necessary.

As such they have cells specializing in assassination, sabotage, blackmail, intelligence gathering, culture spreading, and direct combat actions. For all intents and purposes they are a subordinate intelligence agency in and of themselves, rather than just a division of the larger I.I.

Cerberus is commanded by Director Jack Harper, AKA the Illusive Man. He is a pureblood Imperial, and a former member of the Inquisition, having been an Interrogator in the Ordo Hereticus before the Inquisition was folded into I.I. His training in the Hereticus has influenced his methods, and his men are less squeamish about torture and other blacker actions then many other units.

One of the assignments Cerberus has on its plate is finding the Shadow Broker, a goal they are close to. They will either subordinate the Broker, or eliminate him and take over his network the hard way.

Codex: Ork Armor Classification: Much like many other races and nations, the greenskins have multiple types of armored vehicles. Here's a brief overview of some of the types.

APC: As it says on the tin. They are designed to carry Ork Boys into the fight relatively quickly. Decently armored by Imperial standards, but poorly armed. They usually can carry twenty Boyz on average depending on equipment.

Light Tanks: Cheap, fast, armed with a big gun, but armor of cardboard. They are the most numerous of the Ork tanks, useful for scouting and dealing with Citadel tanks.

Medium Tanks: Well-rounded and able to deal with most threats, or at least survive a bit longer in a slug fest with an Imperial Tank. They were near unbeatable for the forces deployed by the citadel until Aquila Industries weapons and gear were brought to bear fully.

Heavy Tanks: The big assault tanks of the Ork horde. These machines can even threaten Imperial vehicles somewhat with their firepower and heavy armor. But they are extremely slow and unmaneuverable, making them easy prey to more maneuverable tanks and AT units.

Super Heavy Tanks: Anything larger than a heavy tank, there is no uniform way to make these overall, besides them being massively armed and armored…and proportionally as slow as well. They are nigh indestructible to conventional weaponry, but plasma and beam weaponry can punch through the massive amounts of armor easily.

The Orkoid walkers have a classification all their own. But that is something for another day.

Codex: Tiber Referendum: A bill introduced into the senate anonymously five days ago. It requests that generation two gear be allowed to be sent to the Citadel to reinforce their soon to be all important border state.

The senate is hotly divided over this referendum one way or another. It may come down to a decision by the Emperor himself at this rate.

Codex: Project Genesis: With the proven physical, mental, and moral inferiority of the other races of the galaxy, Imperial Scientists in the Excalibur Initiative have decided the greatest gift they can give them is to turn them Human.

Of course this project is highly controversial, and considered by many traitorous or heretical. But they quietly continue work on this project. Acquiring subjects through kidnapping mostly to test their theories…It's slow going. Some days they seem to make progress, but others they fall four or more steps back.

But they will continue, believing their project is the ultimate salvation for the Galaxy at large.

Review please and thank you


	14. The Wolf Howls

**pllAN** **:** It's been a while, and I apologize for that. Real life and all that...At any rate, what did you have to say? 'Captain Titus Invictus,' You'll see. 'frankieu,' Wrong Legion. 'SPARTAN-626,' Dead on for the Legion, as for the rest you'll see. 'sonic3461,' that's a creative decision on my part, otherwise the fights would be even more one sided. Let's dive in, and see if I still can entertain with this.

Speech

 _Thoughts_

 **Radio/machine speech/scene change**

 **The Wolf HOWLS**

 **Thessian Orbit: Ten Minutes ago**

The Ork fleet had complete dominance over the space around the Asari home world, not even a stealth shuttle could leave without the Greenskins allowing it. They used this superiority to bring more and more of their kind down to the surface. As well as remove captives and loot from the world for shipment back to their territory.

They had also contributed firepower to the ground assault, and as such it was blatantly obvious that without the warships the Orks would never have gotten this far. And it was this armada that prevented covert insertion of new armies via webway gates. Sure the Imperium COULD have sent in millions of war droids every second or so, but without orbital supremacy the invaders could just bomb them out of existence.

There had been a few inventive ideas to change this, such as creating a teleportation device to drop in warheads meant to clear the orbit, but any bombs able to do so would damage Thessia so it was out of the question. Another option was to send engineer ships to systems nearby, and assemble multiple fleets of drone ships, but it was decided to keep that ability under wraps instead.

So a more conventional plan was adopted, a full out assault on the Ork positions. Hundreds of thousands of automated ships, carrying trillions of Trooper war droids and Geara Zulu Mk II under AI control. Beyond that organic forces were deployed with them, a full three hundred thousand marines and other branches along with naval personnel aboard partially manned capital ships.

The main strength of the punch though was three full Legions who had been deployed as the tip of the spear, the Dark Angels, Iron Warriors, and Luna Wolves to be exact. Their combined force was expected to shatter the line and allow the follow up forces to overrun the disorganized forces the Legionaries leave in their wake.

The assault had begun five hours ago. With the three Legions punching through the Ork lines and pushing on to system after system, destroying everything in orbit in the system they arrived in, then moving on. On the left flank was the Dark Angels. On the right flank of the thrust were the Iron Warriors. And dead center pushing on Thessia was the Luna Wolves.

And now they had arrived. The Luna Wolf force numbered fifty ships strong, a pathetic number compared to the tens of thousands of Ork ships. But more is not necessarily better. The ships of the Legion were equipped with the best technology the Empire could provide them, shields that shrugged of the combined fire of the Ork ships…Guns that destroyed any Ork vessel with a single shot, no matter how powerful or large the ship targeted was…and fighters and MS that ran circles around the Orkoid craft.

The greenskins didn't have a snowball's chance in hell. Sure they tried, but they couldn't beat this technological gap. Even with reinforcements pouring in to try and halt the Imperial assault, it was just more ships for the Legionaries to destroy. Something they did with GREAT alacrity and enthusiasm. After all, the Luna Wolves of the past, before the Heresy, were known as Ork hunters, there was a bit of a reputation to live up to.

Once orbit was secured, the Legionaries deployed ground side en masse, they had an infestation to purge.

 **After the Wolves land: Sheppard:**

The lieutenant was certainly surprised to see the Legionaries here. He had expected this battle to be his last. The Orks had pushed the Imperial forces to the brink of utter annihilation, as well as their allies. Textbook last stand scenario, variant 2 B if he remembered right. The usual outcome of such was the utter annihilation of all friendly forces.

But now, with the arrival of the Wolves? It was a battle. A winnable battle at that. He looked at the rest of those by him, the rest of the ODST with him were taking a breather, to them the arrival of the Legionaries was welcome, but not surprising…But the reaction of the Asari was comical to him. The few helmetless ones were staring slack jawed as the Terminators cut their way down the stairs from the temple.

He sat down on an Ork corpse and popped his helmet, Ork snipers weren't a concern any more with the demi god like Astartes on the field. "Take five people. We'll see if the Legionaries have need of us after this, though I doubt it."

The Imperial Soldiers sat down or leaned back, setting in for a brief rest. The Asari also did so, but they seemed dazed. Shepard noted Tsoni sat next to him as he pulled out an Ihlo stick, and lit it. She seemed deep in thought: "Throne for your thoughts T'soni?"

"Is this how every engagement for you Imperials are? Desperate holding actions, and then victory as soon as you get reinforced?" The young Asari asked, sounding shaken and drained from the battle.

Michael sighed, and let out a puff of smoke: "Hell, I've had my share of those last stands…and been on the speartip of crushing offensives…So no, this is hardly standard for our modern military. For what we used to be before unification? When it was the Imperial Guard? Yeah. This would be considered a bad Tuesday for them."

Liara gave him a look of disbelief: "Shepard, we lost billions of our people here. I doubt that would be possible. No battle has ever claimed so many lives."

Shepard didn't blame her for that, the Citadel was still naive about war. Well…Best to learn from the histories: "Look up the Siege of Vraks and the First Battle of Terra in your spare time, I think you'll be surprised…Or look up the Battle of Kursk, that was the largest tank battle in all of history."

The young Asari nodded: "I will. It should be educational if nothing else." And as these two talked, the battle lines advanced further.

 **Brother** **Sergeant Rathius: Front Lines**

The Legionary stormed down the streets of Thessia's capital, smirking beneath his helmet. Sure these Orks were on average bigger than a regular Ork, but they used the same shit tech and tactics as what he fought when he was a member of the Emperor's Warbringers Chapter. A point punctuated when a burst of 1.50 caliber bolter rounds tore a nob and his squad to pieces.

The fire from the members of the Luna Wolves was pinpoint accurate, scything through vulnerable points in the Orkoid personal armor, such as visors, to allow them to end the battle quickly and brutally. With their overwhelming firepower, the Orks attempted to close the distance, and died in droves. Each pull of the trigger sent Bolt shells, Plasma, Melta, Volkite, or Las rounds into an Ork's head or an instantaneously fatal wound.

But despite the hail of fire cutting down everything, the Orks still were getting closer. Fine by him. "Chainswords Brothers." The Legionary called as he drew his own. The Imperial Chainsword was a new beast, mono-molecular teeth made of adamantium-Gundanium hybrid alloy, power field, and an engine that out performed the older models by a large margin.

Something the Orks found out to their cost when the Legionaries weaved around and cut through them with ease. The veteran Legionary laughed as he bisected an Ork, then spun and cut ten Orks heads off with a single swing. This was easy.

"Onwards Brothers! We will purge the vile greenskin filth from this world!" The Luna Wolves pressed on, a war cry springing from their lips: "Lupercal!"

The roar of that war cry caused the Orks to instinctively flinch back, making them even easier targets. Rathius almost pitied the Orks…Almost. But they were what they were made as, biological weapons to fight the Necrons…They had been successful beyond their makers wildest dreams...But now their age was over.

As he moved forward he saw a nob crawling away, blood oozing from his wounds. He had been lucky…Or unlucky…No matter. He stomped over to the Nob, and without breaking stride double tapped it in the head, exploding it in a bloody mess.

A rumbling of tank tracks was heard. Ten Ork Heavies rolled into view, spewing their dakka. The Legionaries weaved around the fire from the colossal tanks, and returned fire as best they could…Which was a storm of return fire. But even so their infantry grade weapons did little more than annoy the tanks.

Just as Rathius was going to order a withdraw to ambush positions to create heavier weapons, the lead Ork heavy detonated. A single railgun shell gutting it. Causing the ammunition to detonate in a loud explosion. A single Leo I F type rolled around the corner, the tank's barrel smoking.

A short but intense tank duel happened between the nine remaining heavy tanks and the Leo. The Ork weight of fire slowly whittling away at the shields…But every railgun round destroyed a tank. So in nine seconds the street was quiet again…Well, as quiet as could be in a city at war. And thus the Legionaries pushed on.

 **Citadel: Spectre Agent Saren**

Saren was not a happy Turian. He had the unfortunate job of reporting the state of Thessia as of his last observation trip twenty four hours ago. In short, the situation was FUBAR as the Imperials say. The Orks STILL had complete orbital dominance. Had penetrated the walls of the capital, and were involved in close quarters fighting. By now he expected the Planet to be on the brink if not already fallen.

There was a question niggling the back of his mind as he reported in…Why hadn't the Orks simply slagged the planet and moved on? They had proven they didn't mind slagging worlds if it delayed them, the trail of broken worlds leading to Thessia proved that. And yet…they didn't. Thessia still was fighting, for what must have been an intolerable period of time to the Greenskin plans.

As he wrapped up the report, he looked at the faces of the councilors. They were as he expected. Tevos was torn between pride and sorrow, not like her people pulled the bulk of the weight in the battle but at least they fought.

Valeran, the newest councilor, was scheming it seemed. Or he had eaten something sour. It was hard to tell sometimes. But he was probably scheming, despite being bad at it. At the present the Salarians were basically out of the War despite kicking the Orks out of their territory…well, having the Imperials do it. So there really was nothing that could be done to improve their position by interfering in the battle of Thessia practically.

As for Sparatus…Well…At least his own race's councilor seemed to be working out what to do WHEN Thessia fell inevitably fell. Granted, the Imperials COULD do something, but the Spectre doubted it. They seemed to have been dragging their feet. True, they had the issue of their western border that was apparently under attack, but they could have sent at least a few more ships.

Before the Council could say anything, Udina burst in with a smug grin. When the Councilors rebuked him and demanded why he had entered their private chambers, the human had replied with but a single sentence: "Thessia has been relieved."

Dead silence met that declaration. Silence that the Human Ambassador was more than happy to fill: "Approximately two hours ago, the counter attack on the Asari front began, spearheaded by the Luna Wolves Legion. As of the last half an hour, the Ork forces in orbit have been annihilated, and Legionaries have landed on the planet. Within the hour I expect that the Orks will be gone."

Saren was impressed to put it bluntly. Such overwhelming power…He waited to be dismissed by the council…he had work to do.

 **Thessia: Warboss Gremaldious da Head Taka**

Warboss Gremadious da Head Taka was not a happy Ork. He commanded the largest single force outside of da Generals. This should have been over by now. But it wasn't. The plasma using Gits were back. In force…Using armor that they had never encountered before.

Reports were coming in from all over the front. None of them good, except for the estimates of enemy forces…But even that was infuriating. The new force numbered possibly fifty thousand at most…and they were chewing through the over one hundred BILLION Orks planet side like they were all grots.

As an explosion rocked his command tent, he had had enough of this. He stomped out of his tent, powa armor whirring and groaning as the eight meter tall ork emerged. He surveyed the battlefield from his position, and was even more angry after seeing one of the last Gorkanoughts on the planet get destroyed by one of the plasma gits walkers.

He took a deep breath…then threw his head back...And roared: **"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGH!"**

The most important word in the Ork vocabulary. A call to war. A call to stand up and fight. An order to stop being a pansy git and stand your ground. And so much more. The invocation of this, dare one call it such, sacred phrase by their Warboss stiffened the flagging Ork morale.

The Warboss shouted out a speech as he looked for the enemy spearhead: "You pansy gits trying ta run? I've neva been so ashamed ta be yer boss. Gork preserve me, dis koinda grot loike behaviour is unnacepteble. We'ze ORKS! We'ze made fer foighten AND winnin. And even if we doie, we STILL win, cause we had a foight WORTH the dieing. So come on ya gretchin lovin gits, put yer backs inta it, and show dose gits what ORKS are made of!"

As he roared that out, he spotted the enemy spearhead. A full company of Terminators, led by the Legate. A dark grin crossed the Warbosses' face as he boarded his kustom chinork with his bodyguards. The helicopter sped off, the purple paint hiding the transport until they were right over the column, and jumped.

The plasma gits reacted near instantly to the falling Orks…but it was too late. The eight to ten meter tall armored giants dropped on them and caused the ground to shake. The massive bulk of the greenskins allowed them to rip apart the Terminators with their bare hands, spreading Legionary blood and shattered ceremite over the battlefield as they tore into the Terminators.

But Gremaldious didn't care for these 'kannon fodda', even as he ripped a veteran of two centuries apart with a single dismissive toss, he was looking for one target, and one target alone. He grinned with glee as he saw his target kill one of his bodyguards with a single sword swing.

THERE was a fight worthy of him. And so he charged, crushing any who got in his way under his power armored gait. To his joy, the one he charged down was able to halt his charge. The lightning fast warrior hitting him repeatedly with his blade, digging deep into the Powa Armor. If he was a lesser Ork, his armor would have been ruptured by now, but his armor was two meters thick.

As such, he weathered the storm of blows with ease. Allowing him to counter attack multiple times. Each time was a closer call for the white armored figure. As the Ork was able to learn his speed of attack, reaction speed, movements, strength, blind spots, ect…all because of how 'ard he was.

And then the inevitable happened. The Terminator armored figure mistepped, and the massive Ork grabbed him. Granted the Ork was covered in minor wounds…but he had his prize…and slowly he squeezed…crushing armor in his grip, causing cracking and hisses to emerge from the armor…the pain would have been near unbearable.

But the Warboss had already decided, he would not crush the Legate to death…No, he had a much better idea…He just needed a gap in the armor to form. And when it did, he punched through and grabbed the Legionary's two hearts, and ripped them out.

The Legate lived long enough to stare at his still beating hearts being devoured by the Ork…and then the giant ripped his head off, and stuck the helmet on his boss pole.

A roar exited his lips that demoralized the Legionaries with the death of their Legate: **"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! DESE GITS ARE NUFFING! IS THERE NO WORTHY CHALLENGA FER ME AMONG YA GITS?"**

A Legionary stepped forward to oppose him…Wielding a Power Maul and a Lighting Claw/Power Fist combo. His Terminator armor painted red in smoke and carnage filled atmosphere of the planet. The Warboss was pleased with his mentality, and gestured for him to come.

 **Unknown Luna Wolves Terminator:**

It had all been going so well, he reflected as he strode towards the massive Ork. The First Company had been scything through the Orks with ease, the normal Orkoid weapons were worthless against them after all, and artillery support as well as armored and air meant the Orks were on the verge of shattering.

Then this monster showed up. The Warboss. The biggest Ork on the planet. His orders had rallied the Ork lines, as well as his actions. The radio was full of chatter of units being pushed back by Orks. With Legatus Lancinius death command fell to the senior captain, Captain Germanius, but he was too far away to deal with this Ork.

So now he would have to stop holding back. Stop pretending to be a mere Legionarie as his Father and Mother told him to. And so he raised his power maul, and let out a snarling roar: "TERRA INVICTA!"

And then he brought down the maul. The Warboss contemptuously moved to block…only to have his arm be crushed. Gremaldius didn't have time to react to the destruction of his arm with more than a blink before he had to fend off more blows. The legionary was impossibly fast, and would not let up. Chaining maul strike into fist blow or claw rake to maul to claw, ect.

Of course, the Legionary didn't have it all his own way. The Warboss still managed to rip off his helmet. Revealing his face to the galaxy…And when he did, the Ork froze in instinctual fear. He took a step BACK, then another…

It gulped: "N-no…D-dis is impussible! Da Boss said youz died tousands of years ago! How are you still 'ere?!"

The Terminator chuckled: "I was dead…But I find as long as your filth plagues the universe, I fear I cannot rest easy in my grave. And so I have returned to lay my vengeance upon your kind, scum."

Any who studied Imperial history would know his face and form all too well…He had gone by many names…The Lord of the Sixteenth. The Cthonian. Dreadful Sagitarii. Warmaster. Lupercal. Horus, the Primarch of the XVIth Legion, walked the galaxy again it seemed.

Though there were some differences. His armor was thinner, much more so than the old Cataphractii type he used during the Heresy and Crusade. But because of this he was taller than how he used to be, at least six inches if not a foot taller. Another key difference to a sharp eyed observer would notice was that this one had pointier ears.

The Ork did not notice any of that though. He was petrified by his race's memories. Memories of when the living demi-god before him drove his species to the brink, and broke them upon Ullanor. The Warboss barely shook off this fear in time to deflect the grab for his head, but it was followed by a smash of the maul destroying his other arm.

That extracted a wail of pain from the Ork that was soul chilling. Imagine hearing the biggest, toughest, most dangerous creature on the face of the galaxy…crying out in pain. A being that had never known defeat or major injury. That thrived on the waging of war, and conquest.

It certainly shook his forces. But they were even more shaken when the Talon ripped the Ork's head off, and it was tossed into the center of their formation. Horus stood upon the dead body, and glared at the greenskins.

With a negligent thought, he activated his coms: "Legionaries of the Sixteenth, the Luna Wolves. This is Horus Lupercal the Second. Son of the Immortal God Emperor of Man, and his bride the Eldar Goddess Isha. I do not ask your obedience, for I have yet to earn it. I instead request this of you, rid me of these foul Greenskins."

The thunderous reply of gun fire and combat filled his ears, and he smiled. The war was far from over, but the battle was won.

 **Overall situation:**

With Horus revealing himself, the battle irrevocably turned against the Orks. Their lines buckled and shattered as the reinvigorated Legionaries pushed forward with a ferocity unseen since the days of the Crusade. A ferocity backed by technology that outclassed their forebearers by hundreds of times over.

Block by block, street by street, district by district, city by city, the Orks were pushed back. Decimated. Eradicated. Purged from existence by righteous fury, and Imperial might. The Orks tried time and again to rally around lower nobs and bosses…but it was in vain.

Each rally just managed to make it so the Orks were destroyed that much sooner. As with more and more greenskins coming together into areas, it merely made them tempting targets for airstrikes, artillery, orbital strikes…Or just Legionaries with power blades.

Even so, the Orks would get one victory from this day…One lasting victory that would haunt the Empire in the near future.

 **Tek Boy Wazzog: Captured Database system**

Wazzog was a specialist in Citadel Tekiology. He had cracked numerous systems before, but the archives here in the capital's primary governmental facility were beyond all the others he had encountered. It had taken hours to get to this part…and now there were reports of a counter invasion pushing back the Boyz.

So Wazzog prioritized. It would have been nice to have the whole archive, but he only needed two data points. The first being what was in the glowey statue da weird boyz had seen in da primary temple…The second being a primary world for these plasma using gits.

The first data point was easy…From what the blueies had discovered; it had some tech that was more advanced than the non-Aquila Industries ones. But there was data hinting at more…Sounded like the Kommandos would have to steal it later.

As for the other one…Well…the only one that fit the bill he could find in a hurry was called 'Armageddon'…For some reason he felt excited when he read that name. It felt like he was reading the name of a place long buried in his memories…A place of happy memories, and large WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHS.

He sent the data off to the Big Boss…just in time too. A white armored figure walked in, and fired a single high explosive mass reaction round into his head, killing the Ork instantly. The Legionary looked at the data the Ork had been examining…And quickly sent a message off to command…They had to be warned.

 **Next Time: The Fourth War for Armageddon**

Review please and thank you

 **Codexs:**

 **Codex: Battle of Thessia Casualties**

Imperial ODST:

750 KIA

200 Wounded

Legionaries:

100 KIA

100 Wounded

Asari:

10.25 Billion KIA

8 Billion wounded

Orks:

1 trillion dead

 **Codex: Legionary Armor**

The MK XI is the latest armor to be developed for the Legions. Slimmer than the Mk X, it takes advantage of the newest technological innovations to make it all but invulnerable to damage. It's still in the testing phases, as all this extra power puts a huge strain on the Legionary inside. There have been multiple near deaths during testing.

Similarly Warlord class Terminator Armor and Destroyer pattern Dreadnoughts are being tested for similar reasons. Their gigantic increase in power over the older models is obviously a great boon, but until the Legionary inside can survive using them unharmed, they are shelved for further development.

 **Codex: Ullanor**

Armageddon was once known by a different name…Ullanor. The sight of one of the greatest triumphs of the near mythical Great Crusade. Where the combined forces of the Imperial Army, multiple Titan Legions, Imperial Navy, Ultra Marines, White Scars, and Luna Wolves crushed the largest Ork Empire of the time.

It is a point of pride in the Imperium, despite the dark days that followed.

But there is another race that remembers Ullanor. The Greenskins. To them Ullanor is a myth. A legend. Their Valhalla in a way. Where an Ork can experience never ending war…and the site of their greatest defeat…It was believed a myth by the forces of Da Big Boss…Until now.

Now they know where it is…and they will come for it. Yarrick's nightmare will begin again.

 **Codex: Battle Medals awarded for Thessia**

Imperial Awards:

Star of Terra: Thirty, posthumously, and one awarded to Sheppard for his actions over the long battle.

Imperial Medal of Valor: One thousand, total

Corona Civica: Awarded to the planet of Thessia as a whole, and one awarded to Liara T'soni of the Thirtieth Militia Regiment

Citadel Awards:

Galactic Unit Citation: 82nd ODST Regiment and the Garrison of Thessia

Palladum Star: Every combatant in the battle on the citadel side

 **Codex: Primarchs Gen 2**

The natural born sons of the Emperor and Isha. The closest thing to living breathing minor gods of war that the Imperium has ever had. Each of them towered head and shoulders above their older 'brothers' in skill and power.

Magnus the Second in a pure psyker fight could beat his brother for example. Angron could decimate the entirety of the old Twenty One in close Quarters. And Guiliman wrote a better version of the Codex than his brother, the Index was alot more comprehensive and an actual living document, changing with technology.

But that is just the tip of the iceburg. As they were raised in the same household, knowing of each other from the day each sibling was born, there were less animosities and rivalries. This led to not only better relations between the brothers, but it would lead to a near flawless co-operation between the Legios.

The other major change is that the twenty one brothers weren't the end of it. The Emperor and his bride weren't done making children, and who could blame them, their children were perfect leaders. Powerful, wise, and able to learn at the feet of their parents. Also, the act of making children was enjoyable.


End file.
